Full text of "The Burlington magazine"

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ORONTO
RAW

The

Burlineton Magazine

for Connoisseurs

Illustrated & Published Monthly

Volume VII— April to September 1905

LONDON

THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE, LIMITED

17 BERNERS STREET, W.

NEW YORK : ROBERT GRIER COOKE, 307 FIFTH AVENUE

BRUSSELS : LEBEGUE & CIE, 46 RUE DE LA MADELEINE

AMSTERDAM : J. G. ROBBERS, N. Z. VOORBURGWAL 64

LEIPZIG: KARL W. HIERSEMANN, 3 KONIGSSTRASSE

FR. LUDWIG HERBIG (Wholesale Agent), 20 INSELSTRASSE

FLORENCE : B. SEEBER, 20 VIA TORNABUOM

BASLE : B. WEPF & CO.

LONDON

PRINTED ny EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE

HIS MAJESTY'S PRINTERS

v.7

CONTENTS OF VOL. VII

Editorial Articles : Page

The Opportunity of the Government .... . . ?

Architectural Education in England .
The Reform of Municipal Architecture
The Boston Museum
Private Enterprise in Public Affairs .
Constantin Meunier

The Extinction of the Middle-class Collector
The Directors of our Public Galleries
A Ministry of Fine Arts ? By M. H. Spielmann
The New Velazquez in Boston Museum. By Francis Lathrop
Archaic Chinese Bronzes. By C. J. Holmes
Charles II Silver at Welbeck. By J. Starkie Gardner :

Part I

Part II (conclusion) ......

Minor English Furniture Makers of the Eighteenth Century. By R. S. Clouston :—
Article VI— Robert and Richard Gillow
Article VII — Shearer .....

Article VIII — (conclusion) .....

A Picture of St. Jerome attributed to Titian. By C. J. Holmes
Opus Anglicanum. Ill — The Pienza Cope. By May Morris
Andrea dal Castagno :

Part I — His Early Life. By Herbert P. Home . . . 66, 222

Part II — The Early Works of Andrea ...... 223

Appendix . . . . ...

The Pre-Raphaelite and Impressionist Heresies. By Bernhard Sickert

The Failure of our Water-Colour Tradition. By P. A.

The Rouen Porcelain. By M. L. Solon .......

The Life of a Dutch Artist in the Seventeenth Century. By Dr. W. Martin
Part I — Instruction in Drawing ......

Part II — Instruction in Painting ......

The Father of Perugian Painting. By Edward Hutton ....

Tempera Painting. By Roger E. Fry .......

Constantin Meunier : —

I — Personal Reminiscences. By Prof. R. Petrucci

II — His aim and Place in the Art of the Nineteenth Century. By Charles
Ricketts ........••

Mr. J. H. FitzHenry's Collection of Early French P&te 'lendre. By C. H. Wylde
The Rothschild MS. in the British Museum of ' Les Cas des Malheureux Nobles

Hommes et Femmes.' By Sir Edward Maude Thompson, K.C.B
English Primitives : The Painted Chamber and the Early Masters of the West-
minster School. By W. R. Lethaby ....••

Some English Architectural Leadwork. By Lawrence Weaver, F.S.A. :

Part I— The Early Period

Part II (conclusion) — The Later Period .....

4
93
94

94
96

! 73

343

J 9

3 2
105

41
2 1 1

361

5°

230

97
1 12

116

125
416

l 32
*7S

177

181
188

198

257

270
428

CONTENTS OF VOL. VII— continued

Page
Ecclesiastical Dress in Art. By Egerton Beck : —

Article I — Colour (Part I) 281

Article II— Colour (Part II)

Article III — Colour [conclusion) ......

A Tudor Manor House : Sutton Place by Guildford. By Robert Dell
Opus Anglicanum at the Burlington Fine Arts Club. By May Morris
A Seventeenth-Century Wall-Paper at Wotton-under-Edge. By Archibald G. B
Russell ............

An Unknown Fresco-Work by Guido Reni. By Robert Eisler, Fellow of the I.R
Institute for Austrian History

373
446

289

302

3°9
3*3

Notes on Some Recently Exhibited Pictures of the British School. By C. J. Holmes 324

Pietro Aretino by Titian. By Roger E. Fry ....... 344

Dalou. By Charles Ricketts 348

Study for 'The Egremont Family Piece' by George Romney .... 354

Some Florentine Woodcuts. By G. T. Clough . . . . . • 355

The Auctioneer as Dealer . . . . . . . . . . 371

Notes on Pictures in the Royal Collections :

Article VIII — The Story of Simon Magus, part of a Predella Painting

by Benozzo Gozzoli. By Lionel Cust, M.V.O., and Herbert Home 377

Appendix. ........... 382

Turner's Theory of Colouring By C. J. Holmes ...... 409

On Two Miniatures by de Limbourg. By Roger E. Fry . . . . -435

The True Portrait of Laura de' Dianti by Titian. By Herbert Cook, F.S.A. . 449
Is Hans Daucher the Author of the Medals attributed to Albert Durer ? By

S. Montagu Peartree .......... 455

The Lemos and Este Bottles in the Waddesdon Bequest. By A. Van de Put . 467
Notes on Various Works of Art :

On a Florentine Picture of the Nativity. By Roger E. Fry . . 70
The Image of Pity by an Unknown Master of the Fifteenth Century.

By W. H. J. Weale 75

On a Painting by Antonio da Solario. By Roger E. Fry . . -75

Portrait of a Girl by H. Fantin-Latour . . . . . 76
Old English Drug and Unguent Pots found in Excavations in London.

By C. H. Wylde 76

Mr. George Salting's Chinese Porcelain Figures in the Victoria and

Albert Museum. By S. W. Bushell 82

Miscellaneous Notes :

The Annunciation by Roger de la Pasture. By W. H. James Weale . 141
A Tapestry of Martin of Aragon and Maria de Luna. By A. V. de P.

and W. G. T 141

An Unknown Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici. By Lewis Einstein . 142

Recent Acquisitions at the British Museum. By R. L. H. . . . 147
A Miniature by Heinrich Friedrich Fiiger in the Wallace Collection.

By Claude Phillips 14 8

CONTENTS OF VOL. VII— continued

Sir J

Miscellaneous Notes — continued

A Museum of Roman Antiquities

Some Portrait Drawings by Diirer in English Collections, recently

identified. By Campbell Dodgson .....
Carved Wood Watch-Stands from the Collection of Mr. Charles Edward

Jerningham. By C. H. Wylde ....
Private Collections in Austria. By H. W. S.
The Directorship of the British Museum
A Miniature by Francois Boucher. By Claude Phillips
Shutters of a Triptych by Gerard David. By W. H. James Weale
' The Soldier and the Laughing Girl ' by Jan ver Meer of Delft
The 'Virgin of Salamanca' by the Maitre de Flemalle. By

C. Robinson, C.B. . . . • •

A Tunic from a Cemetery in Egypt. By A. F. Kendrick
The Oxford Exhibition of Historical Portraits
Gilbert Marks : Silversmith. By M. H. S.
The Verona Gallery. By Lionel Cust, M.V.O.
German Art Institutions in Italy. By H. W. S.
New Acquisition at Berlin
A Portrait at Oxford .

Holbein and Horenbault. By W. H. J. W.
A Portrait of A. W. Pugin. By R. E. D. .
A Francoise Duparc. By D. S. MacColl .

The Forthcoming third German Exhibition of Applied Art. By H
A Portrait of William Caxton. By S. Montagu Peartree .
A Portrait of Napoleon by David .

The National Portrait Gallery

The ' Maitre de Flemalle ' and the Painters or the School of Salamanca

By Sir J. C. Robinson, C.B.
The Jordaens Exhibition at Antwerp. By R.
A Flemish Picture from Abyssinia
A Stolen Frans Hals .
Ecclesiastical Art Exhibition
Miscellaneous Notes and Letters :

The Study for the Egremont Family Piece.

The Stolen Frans Hals

A Painting by Gerard David. By W. H. J. Weale .

A Lost Letter by Rembrandt. By Dr. C. Hofstede de Groot

'A History of Ancient Pottery.' By P. D. V

Letters to the Editors : —

The Van Eycks and M. Bouchot (W. H. J. Weale) .

The Portrait of Isabella Brant in the Hermitage (Charles Ricketts)

' Albert Durer ' (T. Sturge Moore)

The Ascoli Cope (Eric Maclagan)

Page
I5 1

l 5 2

157

158

2 33
234

2 37

238
238
238

243
243
244
33 1
33 1
33 1
33 1
332
332
383
387
387

387
393
394
397
397

By Sir Walter Armstrong 469

469
469
470

470

Petrucci

W.S

83
84
84

CONTENTS OF VOL. VII— continued

Letters to the Editors — continued

Page

Francoise Duparc (Arthur B. Chamberlain) . . . . -85

The History of Art according to Mr. Weale (Henri Bouchot and

W. H.J. Weale) 159

Drug and Unguent Pots found in London (R. L. Hobson) . . .160

A Ministry of Fine Arts ? (Thackeray Turner) . . . . 1 60

The Boston Velazquez (Alban Head) . . . . . . .160

The Destruction of Thames Scenery (G. F. Millin) .... 247

Harrington House, Craig's Court (Julian Sampson) .... 248

The Tweedmouth Pictures. By Christiana J. Herringham . . 335

Opus Anglicanum (Sidney J. A. Churchill) ...... 397

The ' Savoldo ' in the National Gallery (Herbert Cook, F.S.A.) . . 398

Bibliography ........ 85, 161, 248, 338, 401, 474

Foreign Correspondence . . . . . . . . . . .88

Books Received

Recent Art Publications

Art in America

The German ' Salons' of 1905. By H. W. S.

90, 169, 253, 340,
170, 254,
• 245, 336,

4°5> 477
406, 478

39 8 > 479
• 47°

LIST OF PLATES

PAGE

Frontispiece : Portrait of Philip IV of Spain —

Velazquez ....... 2

The New Velazquez in the Boston Museum : —

Plate I — Portrait of Philip IV — Velazquez . 9

Plate II— 1, Head from full-length Portrait of
Philip IV in the Boston Museum; n, Por-
trait of Philip IV, by Velazquez, in the
Prado; m, Head from the full-length Por-
trait of Don Carlos, by Velazquez, in the
Prado ; iv, Head from the full-length Por-
trait of Don Fernando, by Velazquez, in the

Prado 13

Archaic Chinese Bronzes :

Plate I, Chinese Bronze Vessel, with Cover in
form of a Monster's Head

Plate II (Nos. 1, 2) .

Plate III (Nos. 3, 4)

Plate IV (Nos. 5, 6)

Plate V (Nos. 7, 8) .
Charles II Silver at Welbeck: —

Plate I — 1. Dutch Covered Jars; 2. English
Covered Jars and Beakers ....

Plate II — 3. Dutch Flask-shape Vases ; 4. Dutch
Flask-shape Vase and English Covered Jars .

Plate III — 5. Incense Burner ....

Plate IV — 6, 7. English Silver Wine-coolers .

Plate V — 8. Pair of Wine Fountains ; 9. Wine
Fountain . . . . . . .107

Plate VI — 10. Vases, 1666; n. Flagons, 1700 no

18
21

2 4
27

36
39

104

PAGE

Minor English Furniture Makers of the Eigh-
teenth Century : —

Robert and Richard Gillow : — Plate I — 1. Early
Card Table; 2. Chair made in 1789 for
Mr. De Trafford ; 3. Chair with back of
Interlacing Hearts ; 4. Commode in Adam
Style 45

Plate II — 5. Ladder- back Chair ; 6. Shield-
back Decorated Chair ; 7. Drawing of Side-
board from ' Cost Book ' ; 8. Drawing of
Pier Table from ' Cost Book ' . . .48

Shearer: — Plate I — 1. Sideboard; 2. Bookcase
and Secretaire 213

Shearer: — Plate II — 3. Bookcase and Secretaire;
4. Screen Writing-table ; 7. Chest of
Drawers; 8. Horse-shoe Dining- table . .217

Plate III — 5. Sideboard designed by Shearer;
6. Sideboard designed by Hepplewhite . 220

The Chippendale Period : — Designs by M. A.
Pergolesi, from the Copy of his Book in the
National Art Library 365

Commode in Style of Adam, decorated by
Angelica Kauffman ..... 368

Chimney-piece decorated by Angelica Kauff-
man, formerly in Sir Joshua Reynolds's

House 368

St. Jerome in the Desert — attributed to Titian . 51
The Pienza Cope : —

Plate I, The Cope 55

LIST OF PLATES— continued

PAGE

The Pienza Cope — continued :—

Plate II, Portion of the Cope . . . • 58

Plate III, „ ,, 61

Notes on Works of Art : —

The Nativity — Florentine School . . . 71
Head of St. John the Baptist — Antonio de

Solario . . . . . . . . 71

The Image of Pity by an Unknown Master of

the Fifteenth Century . . . . -74
Portrait of a Girl — H. Fantin-Latour . . 77
English Drug and Unguent Pots excavated in

London ....... 80

The Lady with the Bird-cage — W. H. Deverell . 92
La Loge — Auguste Renoir . . . . -99

On the Wharfe, near Farnley — -T. Girtin . .113
Rouen Porcelain in Blue and White . . .121
The Life of a Dutch Artist :—

Pupil Drawing from Plaster by Candlelight —

Etching by Rembrandt . . . .129

Woman Drawing from Plaster — Engraving by

Brichet after Gabriel Metzu . . . .129
The Pupil in the Studio — Engraving by

Wallerant Vaillant 129

Pupils Drawing and Painting — M. Sweerts . 131
The Drawing School — Michiel Sweerts . .131
A Painter's Studio — Adrian van Ostade . . 419
Rembrandt's Studio — Wash Drawing by Rem-
brandt 422

A Painter in his Studio — Painting by Adrian

van Ostade 422

A Painter in his Studio — Etching by Adrian

van Ostade 422

Youth Drawing after a Picture — Probably by

Michiel Sweerts 425

Student Drawing after Plaster — Attributed to

Ludolf de Jongh 425

Paintings by Benedetto Bonfigli : —

The Annunciation, with St. Luke Writing . 135
Banner of the Brotherhood of St. Bernardine . 135
Miscellaneous Notes : —
The Annunciation — Roger de la Pasture . . 140
Portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici .... 143
Altar-frontal of French Tapestry made for

Martin of Aragon and Maria de Luna,

c. 1397-1407 143

English Porcelain and Glass recently presented

to the British Museum by Mr. Charles

Borradaile ....... 146

Portrait Study in Miniature of Two Sisters —

Heinrich Friedrich Fiiger .... 149
Ulricb Starck— Albert Diirer . . . .153
Paulus Hofhaimer — Albert Diirer . . . 153
Carved Wood Watch-stands from the Collection

of Mr. Charles Edward Jerningham . . 156
The Soldier and the Laughing Girl — Jan ver

Meer of Delft 172

Portrait in Miniature of Madame de Pompadour

— Francois Boucher ..... 232
Shutters of a Triptych by Gerard David . . 235
The ' Virgin of Salamanca ' by the Maitre de

Flemalle ....... 239

Tunic from a Cemetery in Egypt . . . 239

Miscellaneous Notes— continued : —

Salvers designed and made by the late Gilbert
Marks

Portrait of Augustus Welby Pugin .

Painting attributed to Francoise Duparc .

William Caxton presenting the ' Recuyell of
Troye ' to Margaret of York .

Portrait of Napoleon I by Jacques-Louis David 3S5

The Mass of St. Gregory ; formerly in the
Parish Church of Bonella della Sierra, near
Avila

The Last Judgement, panel of the Reredos in
the Cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo .

The Magdalen anointing the Feet of Christ

The Resurrection ......

Head of Christ, Bruges School; formerly in
possession of King Theodore of Abyssinia

The Blessed Virgin and Child resting on the
Flight into Egypt — Gerard David
Works by Constantin Meunier : —

Interior of a Colliery : Drawing

Furnaces : Pastel

Miners : Water Colour

Puddler Resting : Bronze .

The Soil : Bronze

La Marteleur : Bronze
Early French Pate Tendre in the Collection of
Mr. J. H. FitzHenry:—

Plate I (Figs. 1-5)

Plate II (Figs. 28-31)

Plate III (Figs. 6-27)

A Rothschild MS. in the British Museum: —

The Career of Saul

The Contest between Poverty and Fortune

Boccaccio Lecturing .....

Boccaccio's Interview with Fortune .

Petrarch's Visit to Boccaccio ....

The Preaching of Mahomet and the Death of
Queen Brunhild ......

The Last Supper, Crucifixion, Entombment, and

Resurrection — Andrea dal Castagno
The Painted Chamber, Westminster : —

Destroyed Figures of Virtues and Vices — from
Engravings after Drawings by Stothard

Fragments of the Virtues ....

The Coronation Group ....
English Architectural Leadwork : —

Plate I — 1. Knole ; 2. Haddon Hall

Plate II — 3. Dome Alley, Winchester; 4
Haddon Hall; 5. Haddon Hall; 6. Knole
7. Hatfield 275

Plate III — 8. Shrewsbury; 9. Bramhall ; 10
Bramhall ; 11. Coventry; 12. Knole; 13
Haddon Hall; 14. Windsor Castle; 15
Guildford 278

Plate IV— 1. Haddon Hall; 2. Coventry
3. Durham Castle; 4. Haddon Hall.
5. Bideford ; 6. Hatfield ; 7. Frampton . 429

Plate V.— 8. Bramhall; 9. Bolton Hall; 10
Condover Hall; 11. Stonyhurst ; 12. Not-
tingham Museum; 13. Plumbers' Company
Museum ....... 432

242
333
333

385

389

389
392
392

395

47i

179
179

183
183
186
1 86

189
193
196

199
199
203
203
207

207

22.5

261
267
267

271

Vll

LIST OF PLATES— «>«//;/«*/

Sutton Place by Guildford : —
The Quadrangle, from the North
The South and East Wings, from the South-
east

The small Panelled Hall .
The Dining-room ....
The Great Hall ....
The Long Gallery in the East Wing
The Great Hall ....
Opus Anglicanum at the Burlington Fine Arts
Club : — Portion of the Steeple Aston Cope

(Altar Frontal)

Cope in the possession of Colonel J. E. Butler-
Bowdon .......

Panel belonging to St. Dominick's Priory,

Haverstock Hill

The Harlebeke Cope, belonging to the Cin-
quantenaire Museum, Brussels
A Wall- Paper of the Seventeenth Century at
Wotton-under-Edge . . . . .
An Unknown Fresco- Work by Guido Reni : —
Plate I — Frescoes by Guido and Paul Bril
Plate II — Ceilings by Orazio Gentileschi :
The Rape of Proserpine, The Rape of Am-
phitrite, The Rape of Europa
Plate III — Ceiling by Giovanni da Udine in
the Grimani Palace, Venice ; Fresco by
Guido Reni, with Landscapes by Paul Bril .
Recently exhibited English Pictures : —
Portrait of Mr. Vestris — Gainsborough
Landscape with Figures — John Crome
Portrait of Mrs. Irwin — Sir Joshua Reynolds
Study for ' the Egremont Family Piece ' by
Romney .....

Portrait of Pietro Aretino — Titian
Sculptures by Dalou : —

Head of Diana .....
Torso . . ...
Study of a Sleeping Child
Woman Taking off her Stocking

PAGE

291

291
294
294
297
300
300

305

305
308

308

311

3iJ

319

322

256
325
329

342
345

349
349
352
35 2

PAGB

Panels from the Predella of the Altarpiece
painted by Benozzo Gozzoli : —
The Death of Simon Magus .... 379

Miracle of St. Dominic 379

St. Denis (Rivers of France). — J. M. W. Turner . 408
Arundel Castle (Rivers of England).— J. M. W.

Turner . . . . . . . .413

Two Miniatures by de Limbourg : —

St. Jerome in his Study ..... 437

Virgin and Child, with Scenes from the Life of
the Virgin ....... 437

Drawing by de Limbourg in the MS. Douce

144, Bodley's Library, Oxford . . . 440
The Visitation ....... 443

The Virgin, with Saints Peter and Paul,
glorified by the Trinity ..... 443

Titian's Portrait of Laura de' Dianti : —

The Portrait in the Collection of Sir Frederick

Cook, Bart., M.P 451

Portrait of Alfonso I, duke of Ferrara . . 451
Copy of the Portrait in the Collection of the

baron von Lipperheide, Berlin . . . 454
Copy of the Portrait in the Stockholm Museum 454
Is Hans Daucher the author of the medals attri-
buted to Albert Diirer ?
1, 2, 3. Medals 457

4. Relief in the Collection of Mr. J. Pierpont

Morgan .... . . 457

5. Group from Panel of the Descent into

Limbo, in St. Ulrich, Augsburg . . 457
The Deposition ...... 461

The Holy Family with Attendant Angels. . 461
The Resurrection ...... 464

Repose on the Flight into Egypt — Joachim

Patinir 481

Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine — Attributed to

Adrian Isenbrant ...... 484

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

Page

Opus Anglicanum : The Pienza Cope : —

Detail of the Syon Cope .....
Detail of the Steeple Aston Cope
English Porcelain and Glass : —

The Chelsea triangle-mark ....
Portrait Drawings by Diirer : —

Fig. 1. — Hofhaimer at the Organ. Detail from

' Maximilian at Mass ' .
Fig. 2. — Hofhaimer at the Organ. Detail from
' The Triumphal Procession of Maximilian ' .
The Painted Chamber at Westminster : —

Figs. 1 and 2. — Elevations of the North and
South sides of the Chamber .... 258

Page

64
65

147

152

The Painted Chamber at Westminster — continued.

Fig. 3. — Specimen of the Inscriptions

Fig. 4. — From Cocker's Drawing of Painting .

Fig. 5. — Pattern of Gesso-work from the margin

of one of the window jambs . . . .

Some Florentine Woodcuts

Figs. 1 and 2 .

Fig. 3 . ...

F [ g- 4
Figs. 5
Figs. 7
Arms of

and 6 .

and 8 .

Fernando Ruiz (II) de Castro, count
of Lemos, Andrade, and Villalba, viceroy of
Naples, 1599-1601 . . . . .

263
264

265

356

357
358

359
360

46S

vin

THE

J5H EDITORIAL ARTICLES j&
OPPORTUNITY OF THE GOVERNMENT

E have come to a cri- tions whose loss would be irreparable) ; but

tical period. Family we need the very finest talent we possess to

pride no longer pre- cope with the odds against us. While

vents the most distin- applauding the enterprise of our American

guished personages in
England from selling
the pictures on their walls to the highest
bidder. Just as the decadent nobles of Italy
more than a century ago sold their ances-
tral treasures to the stronger, wealthier
aristocracy of northern Europe, so that
aristocracy in its turn is coming to a stand-
still, and is selling its possessions to the great
princes of modern finance. The transfer is
only the inevitable result of the forces or
evolution, and we need waste no time in
amenting it, although the change places
our art treasures within the reach of the
scientific enterprise of Germany and the
resources of America.

For years it has been the fashion to smile
at the American collector, on the assump-
tion that he could be satisfied with any
forgery that an unscrupulous dealer cared
to plant upon him. Those who made for-
tunes by such transactions in London and
Paris are beginning to find their market
gone. During the last few years the
Americans have set their house in order.
Many collectors in the United States now
possess expert knowledge, almost all now
obtain good expert advice. American public
galleries are equally alert. Even in the
matter of official salaries they are beginning
to outbid us and to secure directors who
know the treasures which still remain in
our private collections.

We could not hope entirely to stop the
exodus of our treasures except by legisla-
tion on the Italian model. For this the
country is hardly prepared. A really strong
and capable Director of the National Gallery,
not to mention the Victoria and Albert
Museum, would, however, be often able to
save us from an irreparable loss (and there
are still works of art in our private collec-

cousins, we may still cherish a natural wish
to have the first choice of our art treasures,
and that choice can only be exercised by a
man of exceptional experience.

We rejoice to learn that a matter of so
much importance is receiving the attention
it deserves. Mr. Balfour stated in the House
of Commons on March 15, in answer to
Colonel Stopford-Sackville, that no appoint-
ment had yet been made to the directorship of
the National Gallery, and that the conditions
of the appointment were under considera-
tion. It may be presumed that these con-
ditions include the various points that have
been raised since The Times first drew
public attention to the vacancy, such as
the separation of the Tate Gallery from
the National Gallery. On that question
there seems to be something like una-
nimity among persons interested in art. It
is recognized that each of these institutions
should have a responsible and independent
director of its own.

It has, indeed, been rumoured in some
quarters that what is being considered is
the question whether any director at all
should be appointed to the National Gal-
lery. It is true that a member of the
Royal Academy has suggested that jTi,ooo
of the small sum annually spent on art out
of the public purse might usefully be
diverted to other purposes by leaving the
directorship vacant. But the suggestion
has not been taken seriously, and we decline
to credit a report which is so grave a re-
flection on Mr. Balfour and his colleagues,
the more so since in the estimates for
1905-6 the purchase grant has been in-
creased from £5,000 to £7,000. It must
indeed be evident to anyone acquainted,
however slightly, with the existing artistic
conditions that never has our great national

The Burlington Magazine, No. 25. Vol. VII— April 1905

The Opportunity of the Government

collection needed more than now a strong
man at its head.

Now it is difficult for a Prime Minister,
however fine his taste and intelligence, to
give proper attention to the choice of such
a man, in view of the claims that affairs of
State and Parliament make upon him. He
must depend largely on the advice of
friends, and must be inclined to leave the
matter to a great extent in the hands of
others. He is therefore liable, with the
best intentions in the world, to pass over the

most suitable men because the claims of a
friend's friend are pressed upon him, and he
has not time to go personally into the matter.
Much greater is this danger when, as at
present, the directorship of all our three
chief public museums is, or soon will be,
vacant.

All these things point to the conclusion
arrived at by Mr. Spielmann in his article
on another page, that the interests of our
national art demand a Minister whose sole
business it is to look after them.

ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION IN ENGLAND

ANY of those who re-
member that musty and
doleful place the old
Architectural Museum
in Westminster — now,
fortunately, put to bet-
ter uses — must wonder
that we have any architects worthy of the
name left among us. It would be difficult
indeed to conceive any worse method of
training the young student than that of
hanging on a wall models of half the famous
gothic capitals in England, isolated from
their shafts and their natural setting, and
then expecting the beginner to understand
the principles on which our great cathe-
drals were built from this muddle of iso-
lated and unrelated fragments.

It is curious that the amateurish taste
which regarded architecture as ornament
applied to a framework put up by a builder
should have lasted so long after the experi-
ments of Horace Walpole and Beckford
had become a standing joke, and half-a-cen-
tury after the death of Pugin, who first
showed a better way. Nevertheless, the
heresy still lingers, both in the mind of the

public and in that of some so-called 'archi-
tects.'

We have, therefore, every cause to be
thankful to the Royal Institute of British
Architects for taking up the whole ques-
tion of architectural education in England.
The Board formed at the Institute's invita-
tion would appear to be setting about its
work in a businesslike way, with a view both
to improving existing methods of teaching
and to co-ordinating them throughout the
country. The paper read in February by
Mr. Reginald Blomfield, A.R.A., before
the Institute, and printed in vol. xii, No. 8,
of their Journal, is so entirely sound and
sensible in its main lines that the success
of the new system should be assured. The
matter is one for general congratulation.
Bad pictures can be hidden in dark corners;
bad furniture and bad china can vex only
those who live with them. Bad architec-
ture, however, is an unavoidable public
insult to every right-minded man as well
as a standing disgrace to the nation which
produced it. All, therefore, must wish
well to the Board of Architectural Edu-
cation.

A MINISTRY OF FINE ARTS?
J9* BY M. H. SPIELMANN

[ROM time to time it has
Ibeen asked whether a Min-
istry of Fine Arts should
not be established in this
lcountry, and whether the
[protection of such a de-
partment would not foster the arts as
effectively as they are fostered under similar
patronage abroad. This is a proposition
which I think has been more favoured
hitherto by artists themselves than by the
general public. For my own part I have
had my doubts of the efficacy of the step,
mainly in view of results we see in other
countries, and from the opinions expressed
by many a painter and architect. ' You
may not rejoice in a grandmotherly nurture
of the arts,' they have said, ' but you may
thank Heaven that you have no tyrannical
ministry, no governmental department to
dictate and " patronize " official art, no
minister and his deputies to open every
exhibition, to attend at every inauguration,
to make the same written speeches on
every occasion, to stamp the same charac-
ter of architecture on every town, to foist
upon every departmental gallery and mu-
nicipal museum the great canvases and
machines which are only painted in the
hope of such recognition. In fact, in
England art is free, and that is why you
have no " school of painting," no disciples,
but many masters. With you art develops
naturally ; it is not forced, it is not en-
couraged this way or patronized that way,
and your art is the expression of the feeling,
and represents the character, of the people.'
It is impossible to deny that there is
much in the argument. Prosperity of art
is not necessarily synonymous with the
prosperity of the artists ; and official con-
trol of art, however laxly it may be exer-
cised, has always been regarded in Great
Britain with mistrust.

That mistrust has many a time been
deepened into distrust when the action of

our legislators has shown us what might
be expected from a government depart-
ment. It is not long since Lord Salisbury,
then premier, in the House of Lords, and
Sir William Vernon Harcourt, ex-cabinet
minister, in the House of Commons,
emptied the vials of their sarcasm — upon
what ? — upon the finest work of architec-
tural art which had for a long while been
erected in the metropolis : Mr. Norman
Shaw's New Scotland Yard — with the
laughing approval of both Houses. The
dignified protest published over the names
of most of our leading architects may have
undone part of the foolish mischief; yet
it could not but have left the two legislative
bodies in a state of bewilderment as to
what constitutes nobility and originality
in the greatest of the arts. On the other
hand, when we have the good fortune to
see the Office of Works controlled by such
men as Lord Esher and Lord Windsor, and
when we find in the Government one gifted
with so fine a taste as we recognize in Lord
Balcarres, we must admit that there are
hopes for ministers yet. And, moreover,
may we not entertain the hope that the
civilizing and refining influence of a Minis-
try of Fine Arts would be an excellent
thing primarily for the art-education of the
Government ?

The moment is not inopportune for the
consideration of the question, for by a
curious and unprecedented coincidence the
headship of our three most important
museums is vacant, or about to fall vacant —
the National Gallery, the Victoria and
Albert Art Museum, and the British
Museum. Thus the question as to the co-
ordination of our public art institutions
seems ripe for discussion.

Discontent is rife in respect of several ot
these institutions. Space is lacking in which
to enlarge in detail upon these important
points, but I may touch lightly upon one
or two. Letters have lately appeared in

A ^Ministry of Fine zArts ?

the public press suggesting the suppression
of the Directorship of the National Gallery
and the restoration of the simple Keeper-
ship, the writers forgetting apparently that
the Directorship was established by a Trea-
sury Minute (March 27, 1855), when it
was proved that the Keepership adminis-
tration existing up to that time had wholly
broken down (see Report of the Select
Committee on the National Gallery, 1853).
On the other hand, the new Treasury Mi-
nute, put forth when Sir Edward Poynter
was appointed, so restricted the authority
of the titular principal of the Gallery that
the effect was to set up a Director who was
not allowed to direct, and whose powers,
which should have been inherent in his
office, were virtually relegated to the Trus-
tees, a board of gentlemen of whom, it is an
open secret, two practically led the others.
It was a weak and anomalous arrangement,
by which a couple of trustees habitually
spoked the wheel and left the nominal
Director to take the blame.

The South Kensington Museum suffers
from a situation far more unsatisfactory ;
that is to say, the remedy is not so easy ot
application. When the House of Commons
Inquiry turned the place inside out and
suppressed the Science and Art Depart-
ment, transferring the whole to the Board
of Education, few, except a handful of
determined men connected with the De-
partment, foresaw that a still greater blight
would soon fall, and that the museum would
become a mere office of the Secretarial
Department, hampered in its development
and in its working. The point need not
be laboured ; but an eloquent sign of the
unsatisfactory and irritating condition of
things may be read in the retirement of
Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke, involving the
sacrifice of his pension after a term of a
long service of years when he might have
taken an honourable and a well-earned
rest ; and we now find him ready to take
service under a new and a foreign master

who will leave him the free hand denied
to officials at home.

Looking beyond these borders we find
causes for discontent in various directions
— the National Gallery of Ireland scurvily
treated, the National Gallery of Scotland
discreditably starved.

Now, these matters and many more might
be set right by the enlightened administra-
tion of a Ministry of Fine Arts. Such a
Department would look after the well-
beina: of each institution without interfer-
ing with the internal working of any of
them which give satisfaction — such, for
example, as the British Museum. All
these public and semi-public museums
and art galleries, such as the Dulwich
Gallery and the Soane Museum, would be
co-ordinated, and all similar municipal in-
stitutions which desired to join could be
merged in the same department. The
Royal Academy would be left out of ac-
count, just as the Salons are indepen-
dent in France, for the governmental touch
becomes a taint when it interferes with the
production, as differentiated from the dis-
posal, of works of art irresponsibly and
happily created. Moreover, no advantage
can be gained by any attempt to coerce so
old an institution which was originally
designed on wrong and illogical lines ; that
is to say, it was begun, and is continued,
as at once a teaching and an exhibiting
establishment — so that its difficulty of con-
science is to exhibit on its walls works
executed in a style of art which it believes it
cannot, as an ' academy,' honestly and con-
sistently recommend in its schools. It is in a
cleft stick. In Paris the Ecole des Beaux-
Arts and the Salons are entirely different and
independent institutions, and the difficulty
from which the Royal Academy suffers
can consequently never arise there.

Thus, though a Ministry of Fine Arts
can buy, commission, and construct, it
could not be satisfactorily allowed to teach,
exhibit, or sell, and the lines on which it

would proceed could be well defined from
the outset. But there are two other direc-
tions in which its influence might be
exerted for the public good, nay, not
' might,' but should. It should take over
the duties, the mission, of the Architectural
Vigilance Committee, and expand them
into universal application within the three
kingdoms. Its duty would be to see that
no artistic offence against taste in our
public streets and buildings be perpetrated,
and that control should be exercised with
the view to beautifying our towns. The
thing can easily and effectually be done ;
it is done in France by the Conseil General
desBeaux-Arts,working under theMinistere
des Beaux-Arts, and it can be imitated here.
And it is natural that such work should fall
to the Government, for no unofficial body
can arm itself with the necessary authority.
At the present moment Lord Windsor,
the First Commissioner of Works, is the
chairman of the Architectural Vigilance
Committee, so that a connexion which is
unofficial and works well might be made
official and work better.

And it should take over the important
office of arranging the British section in
all international exhibitions. As Mr.
Isidore Spielmann forcibly declared to the
Society of Arts the other day, this coun-
try is always at a great disadvantage in
comparison with other nations, when in-
vited to participate in these contests. By
the time we have accepted the invitation,
after the Foreign Office has conferred with
the Treasury, with the Board of Trade, and
the Home Office, and come to its decision,
made its appointments, and established its
committees, other countries have not only
sent in their adhesion, but have secured the

A Ministry of Fine Arts?

best spaces, and spent several months in
advancing the work of their sections.
Great Britain is thus permanently handi-
capped, and even the extraordinary energy
invariably displayed by those who under-
take the duties for the credit of the coun-
try cannot compensate for the disadvantages
that naturally attend a belated start. In
France and Germany permanent depart-
ments exist for the working of interna-
tional exhibitions ; in the former the office
has to undertake also local exhibitions at
home. The intervals between the ending
of one exhibition and the beginning of
another are very short, if they occur at all,
and the advantage is secured that imme-
diately on an invitation from a foreign
country being received and accepted, and
notice of it given to the head official, the
machinery of the department sets to work
automatically, with extraordinary saving of
time, trouble, and expense.

Such are some of the functions that
come within the province of a Ministry
of Fine Arts. I have said nothing of its
potentiality as an agency for the encour-
agement of art and artists ; for that is the
matter which demands more careful and
independent exposition. The point to be
established is that such an Office can be
planned without undue dislocation of ex-
isting administrations, and that there is
needed no undue effort of constructive
ability to simplify and co-ordinate the nu-
merous derelict art bodies as they exist to-
day. Moreover, as in the care of the Office
of Works are so many charges of an artistic
nature (of our palaces, gardens, public works
and the like), the Office is naturally marked
out as the nucleus of a fully established
Ministry, if such there is to be.

THE NEW VELAZQUEZ IN THE BOSTON MUSEUM

BY FRANCIS LATHROP **

dimensions being such as would actually
appear on the canvas had it been transparent
and placed within a few feet of the model.

This well-known device to prevent the
disagreeable effect of a figure's seeming to
protrude from the frame toward the spec-
tator appears to have been one of the prin-
ciples of the make-up of a picture that
Velazquez held in mind from the beginning.
Even the bodego/ies, which have so often
been called 'mere studies' and in no sense
of the word complete pictures, contain evi-
dence that in his earliest work Velazquez
was striving to achieve a pictorial whole,
and in the few years that followed his pro-
gress in this particular was phenomenally
rapid. For example of his care in this
respect, in the portrait under discussion,
although no portion of it is slighted, and
the attempt to make a true record of facts
is everywhere apparent, all parts do not
appeal with equal force to the eye.

First and foremost, the face attracts and
holds our attention, and it does so, we dis-
cover, not alone by its intrinsic merit as a
piece of painting, but partly by reason of
the subordination of other parts deliberately
adopted by the painter. The ear, for instance,
is kept a little lower in tone than the face,
and is not carried so far in the matter of
modelling. In the hands, again, a method
of expression more summary than in the
head has been chosen, so that they do not
unduly interest us in rivalry with it. Cos-
tume and accessories are held down in tone
and in the degree of detail rendered, and
everything is balanced and spaced in a way
to produce an impressive and harmonious
ensemble.

Before proceeding I will briefly consider
the possibility that has been suggested by
several critics of this picture being a copy
after Velazquez, made by some pupil or
follower. The three principal men con-
cerning whom such a possibility would be
entertained are, naturally, Del Mazo, Pareja,

'HE recent acquisition by
the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts of the picture
entitled 'Portrait of Philip
IV of Spain, by Velaz-
quez,' 1 having aroused
controversy regarding the
authenticity of the work, several artists
(myself among the number) were asked to
make a critical examination of the paint-
ing, and the following paper embodies for
the readers of The Burlington Magazine
some of the results of my study of the
subject : —

The picture is a portrait of Philip at the
age of eighteen, and is painted in the early
style of Velazquez, with some phases of
which we are familiar in his works exe-
cuted between 1622 and 1630. It retains
a fair share of the hardness of the bodegones,
but has in parts a more advanced execution
and indicates a new conception in regard to
the management of the materials of his
composition ; it shows also the change from
the brown flesh tones of the Sevillian pic-
tures to the colour-scheme adopted in the
portraits painted after his arrival in Madrid.
The canvas resembles in texture that used
by Velazquez at this period, and measures
82 by 34J inches.

Philip is represented at full length (against
a grey background), dressed in black, with
light grey golilla and cuffs, 2 wearing a gold
chain from which depends the Order of
the Golden Fleece, and standing with feet
apart by the side of a small table covered
with a dull crimson cloth trimmed with
gold. His left hand rests on the hilt of
his sword, while his right holds a folded
paper. On the table is placed a high-
crowned hat having a dark brown feather
in its band. The figure is slightly under
life size, as was usual with the artist, its

1 Reproduced, frontispiece, page 2.

5 That these were not white, ' kept down ' in the painting to
enhance the value of the flesh tones, may be seen from the fact
that the highest light on the golilla and cuffs is far below that
on the presumably white paper held in Philip's right hand.

PLATE I. PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IV.
BY VELAZQUEZ, IN THE PRALiO
GALI.EKY, MADRID.

The New Velazquez in the Boston ^Museum

and Carrefio, and it is not difficult to form
a definite conception of the artistic per-
sonality of each from their extant works.
In no one of these personalities does there
appear a quality that is deeply characteristic
of Velazquez — I mean his grasp of realities,
his almost preternaturally sane understand-
ing of his subject. So little do they seem
to have seen that this was the foundation
of his supremacy that we find in the known
copies attributed to them only more or less
successful attempts to imitate what may be
called the superficial excellences of Velaz-
quez, such as fluency of execution, ' mas-
terly touches,' and the like, but scarcely
the faintest echo of the grasp and concen-
tration that are so marked in the picture
we are considering.

Indeed, we do not find this quality dis-
played to an equal degree in all of the sub-
sequent works of the master himself. Take
the portrait of Philip (Prado, No. 1,070)2
painted after this one. It shows a com-
paratively less conscientious and strenuous
effort to obtain a comprehensive statement
of the facts of nature. This falling-off was
no doubt due to his seeking a method that
should give speedier results. When he has
developed and amplified his method Velaz-
quez returns to the more complete render-
ing of what he saw, and does it with an
economy of means, an ease, and a dexterity
that seem to have little in common with
the laborious struggle evinced in this earlier
work. Precisely this evidence of a struggle
and its happy issue tends to confirm belief
in the authenticity of the picture. It shows
us the young Velazquez working under the
conditions to which he must have been
subjected at the date assigned to the paint-
ing of this picture.

His first journey to Madrid in 1622
having failed of its object, he returned
there in 1623, and after many uncertainties
and delays at last the moment arrived
when the King was actually posing for his

8 Plate I, page g.

portrait. We can guess the supreme im-
portance that Velazquez attached to making
this a success. To do so, however, he had
at hand no stock of superficial or facile ex-
pedients ; the only art he knew was one of
serious and solid qualities, based on sheer
rendering of nature. This is the art that
we see him putting forth to the utmost of
his ability on this canvas, and we see it
above all in the head. In it are no sub-
terfuges or tricks to get an effect cheaply,
no attempts to evade difficulties. The
problem is faced fairly and squarely, and is
solved. It was a task that taxed to the
utmost his powers of concentrated obser-
vation and such skill as he possessed with
brush and pigments, already no incon-
siderable skill for so young a painter.
Finally he succeeded in setting down
firmly and clearly what he saw — not with-
out some youthful hardness, to be sure,
yet with wonderful subtlety and truth.
Especially convincing is the modelling
around the eyes, as well as the veracity
and variety of gradation in the hair. The
entire picture is a monument of conscien-
tious and sustained effort. Nowhere is
there any sign of relaxation in the deter-
mination to make it perfect.

Examine the outline of the cloak and
you will see with what minute care it has
been corrected and recorrected to obtain
to a hair's breadth the swing and action
that the painter desired. This matter of
outline has been a great preoccupation
throughout the work, and its treatment is
extremely characteristic of the painter at
this period. He had not yet mastered the
art of losing a contour and at the same
time suggesting it, as he has done eight or
nine years later in his portrait of Baltasar
Carlos with the Dwarf, which hangs in
the same museum, where it is instructive
to compare the painting, say of the ears,
with that in the portrait of Philip. In
this last there is hard definition against the
background, in spite of the artist's trying

The New Velazquez in the Boston ^Museum

not to make the ear too important. There
may be observed, however, a premonition
of his later treatment of outline in one
finger of Philip's left hand, a demonstra-
tion of the fact that Velazquez was not
only using resources of painting that he
already possessed, but was striving then
and there to devise further means for
realizing more satisfactorily the aspect of
nature.

And in this connexion it will be of in-
terest to note some of the immediate re-
sults of the experimentation revealed in
these hands. The one holding the paper
appears to have been painted while the
artist was still under the influence of the
sort of work that he had been doing on the
head ; so that while wishing to make it
less important he could not help putting
into it some of the same realization of de-
tail. Dissatisfied with the result, the hand
as first done having doubtless competed too
much with the head, Velazquez seems to
have tried to take out some of the excess
of detail, and in so doing left it in the
slightly confused state in which we now
see it. But when he came to the other
hand he broke away from all complica-
tions and made a much simpler and more
abstract statement of form, and one that
if less truthful is also less liable to call
attention away from the head. In making
the simplification he probably noticed that
this hand was more quickly painted than
the other, and the advantages of a method
that gave greater facility of production
would soon become clear to him; for during
the next few years, working as he did then
without pupils or assistants, he must have
been overwhelmed with the numerous
royal portraits that were demanded of him,
and have perceived the impossibility of
keeping pace with these demands unless he
could hit upon some way of working more
rapidly.

That he did adopt such a method is
shown by the full-length portrait of Philip

in Madrid 4 (of which I have already
spoken) painted two or three years later
than the picture in the Boston Museum.
The increase in freedom of execution is
very striking, and the face and hands nota-
bly show us a system in full swing. The
painter does not now seem to be so com-
pletely absorbed as heretofore in the im-
mediate aspect of the nature before him.
Some preconceived notion is clearly influ-
encing him. The hands decidedly give
this impression, and we have to acknow-
ledge that it almost looks as if he were on
the point of evolving a typical hand, to be
ever after repeated in the manner of Van
Dyck. Happily such a fear is groundless,
as subsequent events prove. For in spite
of the growing assurance displayed on this
canvas, Velazquez does not become com-
placent, nor does he contentedly degenerate
into mannerism. On the contrary, he
experiments further, he expands his system,
developing its resources until he is able to
express by it as much as he has done by
the earlier and more painstaking method
which we see so well exemplified in the
head of the Boston picture.

To pursue the subject of the full deve-
lopment of the art of Velazquez would carry
me beyond the limits of this paper, in
which my purpose is to show its place in
that development and to vindicate the good
name of a picture that has been unaccount-
ably looked upon askance. And I think
that I have said enough to show that its
handling is exactly such as we might look
for in the work of Velazquez at this date,
1623. The great gap between his Sevil-
lian pictures and the Prado portrait,
No. 1070 (usually assigned to the year
1623), has often been remarked. It has
seemed altogether abnormal that he should
all at once jump from the bodegone style and,
over-night as it were, appear before us in
the guise of a self-confident man of the

4 This applies also to the head in the bust portrait (Prado,
No. 1071) reproduced on Plate II, which is the study made from
life in painting No. 1070.

' Mlt

4S ®5

I.
II
Hi.

HEAD FROM FILL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IV. ; IN THE BOSTON MUSEUM.
PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IV., BY VELAZgOEZ ; IN THE PRADO GALLERY, MADRID.
HEAD FROM THE FILL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OK DON CARLOS, BY VELAZQUEZ ;

IN THE PRADO GALLERY, MADRID.
HEAD FROM THE FULL-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF DON FERNANDO, BY VELAZQUEZ ;

IN THE PRADO GALLERY, MADRID.

PI -.1 E II.

The New Vela

zauez

in the Boston ^Museum

world with a fluent system of painting at
command. Now if we push forward the
date of the Prado portrait to 1 625 or 1 626,
as we are justified in doing hy the apparent
age of Philip in it, the change of style is
much more easily accounted for. The
painter's life at court for a space of two or
three years, the prestige of royal favour
shown him, incessant work and rapid pro-
duction, would all tend to the result that we
find in this canvas.

On the other hand, if 1623 be taken as
the year in which the Boston picture was
painted, we have the gap between the two
phases of his early manner partly bridged
over, not wholly so, it must be said, for
probably this picture was immediately pre-
ceded by a number of transitional works
(now for the most part lost sight of), done
under some strong influence 5 that must
have come into the artistic life of Velaz-
quez about this time. Another reason for
making 1623 the date of the Boston pic-
ture is that the subject seems to be about
eighteen years old, the age of Philip in
that year.

I must notice here the assertion that has
been made to the effect that this is not a
portrait of Philip, but of one of his younger
brothers, either Carlos or Fernando. It is
true that at first sight the face appears to
differ (noticeably in the chin) from that
shown in what has been hitherto con-
sidered the earliest portrait of Philip by
Velazquez, namely Nos. 1070 and 1071 in
the Prado Museum. But it also differs
quite as much from the portraits of Carlos 6
(No. 1073) and Fernando 6 (No. 1075) in
the same museum. In the case ot Philip
the discrepancy can be sufficiently ac-

s Such an influence would have to be assumed to explain the
sudden change from the dark bodegone effects (reminiscent of the
Tenebrosi) to the searching for luminosity that becomes so dis-
tinct a feature in his early Madrid portraits, and indeed Palomino
says plainly enough that his admiration for the works of Tristan
(the pupil of El Greco) caused a great change in Velazquez's
early method of painting — a statement, however, that has been
questioned by recent writers. One of the transition works
alluded to above may be found, I think, in the head of Gongora
(Prado, No. 1085).

6 Plate II, page 13.

counted for by the different way in which
the light falls in the Prado and Boston
pictures, and the altered aim of the painter.
Whereas in the cases of the other supposed
subjects the divergences are not suscepti-
ble of such explanation.

A comparison in detail confirming this
assertion can easily be made with the aid
of photographs, and I need not particu-
larize further than to mention one or two
points which seem decisive. In the face
of Carlos it will be observed that the eye-
brows rise toward the temples (or descend
toward the nose) and are strongly defined.
In the fice of Philip (Prado, No. 1,070)
this direction does not exist, and the eye-
brows resemble those in the Boston picture
in this respect as well as in being incon-
spicuous. These last two portraits also
coincide in the construction of the ear,
the lower part of which closely joins the
cheek, and has almost no lobe, but in the
portrait of Fernando (Prado, No. 1,075)
the ear detaches itself sharply from the head
and has a well-developed lobe.

It does not, I think, require further dis-
cussion to dispose of a suggestion due to the
strong family likeness that existed between
the three brothers, and to prove that the
Boston picture cannot be the portrait of
either Carlos or Fernando, but must be that
of Philip.

The age of the subject then, together
with the character of the work, would place
the execution in the year 1623, and it may
well be the portrait mentioned by Pacheco 7
as having been done on August 30 of that
year, unless we choose to believe that this
is a replica by Velazquez himself of his
original picture now lost. We might sur-
mise that such an original once existed on
the same canvas and under the Prado por-
trait (No. 1,070), for this has been painted

" Francisco Pacheco — ' Arte de la Pintura,' lib. i, cap. viii.
It has frequently been taken for granted that this was an eques-
trian portrait, but, as pointed out by Beruete, Pacheco does not
explicitly say so, and in fact I should conclude from the passage
cited that he was distinctly referring to a picture that preceded
the equestrian portrait.

T/ic New Velazquez in the Boston ^Museum

over a figure that followed the main lines of
the Boston portrait, as can be partly seen
in the photograph, hut better in the picture
itself, where we vaguely discern the outlines
of the spreading cloak and a shadowy pair
of legs standing apart, as they do in the
earlv picture.

This can hardly he called conclusive proof
of the supposition, and as against it we have
the apparent impossibility that even the
master himself could have given to a replica
such vital qualities as we find in the work
under discussion. Still, such was the power
of his genius that I am not prepared to say
that Velazquez could not have repeated
himself with all the vigour of a first im-
pression. The corrections in the outline of
the cloak already noted in the Boston picture
as well as the experiments tried in the hands
would seem to count against the theory of
its being a replica, and it has besides all the
aspect ot a painting directly from nature.
Its state of preservation is unexpectedly
satisfactory, in spite of some retouchings,
chiefly in the background and foreground,

and of re-lining, which usually detracts
from the freshness of the surface.

Take it all in all, we have every reason
for congratulation in its having survived
with so little damage, for it is a picture that
must always be precious to painters and to
students of Velazquez, both for its admirable
qualities as a work of art and as marking a
most important stage in his development
and career.

Note. — There exists in the palace of the
dukes oi Villahermosa in Madrid a portrait
of Philip IV, called bvjusti a school copy,
in reference to the Prado portrait No. 1,070,
but which is identical in general design with
the picture in the Boston Museum, though
(if an inference can be drawn from an
unsatisfactory photograph) interior in
construction.

Having had only a brief glimpse of the
picture itself by insufficient light, I cannot
express an opinion as to whether it is or is
not a replica from the hand of Velazquez
himself.

ARCHAIC CHINESE BRONZES
J& BY C. J. HOLMES J&

INCE the treasures of Pe-
Ikin have twice been looted
by the civilized peoples of
the west, many Chinese
works of art of one kind or
[another have passed into
the possession of European and American
collectors. Among these works of art
Chinese paintings perhaps hold the first
rank, and those who have made any study
of them are already realizing that, from an
aesthetic point of view, the Chinese pain-
ters were far in advance of the artists of
Europe. This was proved by the admir-
able article by Mr. Laurence Binyon,
which appeared in The Burlington
Magazine for January 1904. It would
hardly be extravagant to prophesy that
the next movement of European art (which
for the moment seems to have exhausted
the possibilities of realism) may take the
form of a return to the principles enun-
ciated by the Chinese more than a thou-
sand years ago. The still older craft of
bronze-working has fewer students, but in
a more limited way it is hardly less im-
portant than Chinese painting.

Till quite recently the literature on the
subject was exceedingly scanty ; the chief
authorities being the Chinese catalogues
(two of which can be studied at the Bri-
tish Museum x ), some fragmentary notes in
A. Favier's ' Peking,' and the picturesque
and interesting survey of Chinese art in
general, by M. Paleologue, in the series
published by the Maison Quantin. Since
these notes were originally compiled for
delivery in the form of a lecture, the first
volume of Dr. Bushell's handbook on
Chinese art at the Victoria and Albert
Museum has appeared, and has at once
become the standard work on the subject.

1 Po-koo-too (B.M. 15299. b. 1). Figures of a great number
of antiquities. Composed in a.d. 1200. The plates in this are
somewhat roughly engraved.

Setsing-koo-kem (B.M. 15299. d. 1), 42 vols. Peking, 1749-50.
Folio. Memoirs of antiquities in the Western purity (palace).
Composed for the Emperor Kien-lung. The illustrations in this
work are exquisitely cut.

If then the present article does no more
than help some readers of The Burlington
Magazine to appreciate the scholarly
treatise of Dr. Bushell, it will have served
its purpose.

In tracing the chronological sequence
of Chinese works of art one great diffi-
culty has to be overcome. The rever-
ence of the Chinese for the past, of which
their ancestor worship is the most promi-
nent sign, extends to all the arts to such a
degree that Chinese artists, generation after
generation, seem to consider that the per-
fect consummation of their craft consists
in the repetition of ancient designs. With
Chinese porcelain this is so much the case
that a date mark can never be accepted by
itself as a proof of the age of a piece. It
is no more than an indication of the period
whose style the maker was copying.

Thus in the case of Chinese bronzes the
shape of the ancient ritual vessels has been
followed almost to the present day. It
is only by a study of their development
and by a close examination of the work-
manship, the decoration, and the patina
that we can decide what the approximate
age of any bronze really is. The national
regard for antiquity has been especially
strong in the case of Chinese bronzes.
The Chinese themselves have recognized
that working in bronze is the oldest of
their national arts, and the few archaic
specimens that were preserved or discovered
or excavated in the country have been re-
garded with the greatest veneration. This
reeling explains the fact that ancient
bronzes formed one of the most important
sections of the Imperial Museum at Pekin.

It is to the looting of that museum
that the collections at South Kensington,
of the late M. Cernuschi at Paris, and of
several American orientalists owe their
chief treasures. Pekin, however, was
looted without much system, and many fine
bronzes have thus drifted into private

^Archaic Chinese Bronzes

collections. Though for the time being
they have only the value of curiosities,
their importance to the future student of
the art of China deserves to be recognized
more fully than has been the case hitherto.

The few known remains of Chinese monu-
mental sculpture dating before the Chris-
tian era, and the Buddhist images in Chinese
temples dating from the first few centuries
after the Christian era, do not in any way
prepare us for the sustained excellence of
Chinese bronzes of the same date. The
archaic reliefs are childish, the temple
statues are florid, conventional, and fantastic.
One or two portrait statues of considerable
excellence exist in private collections, but
until our knowledge of China is far more
complete than it is at present we must
presume that the nation has never possessed
any noble school of monumental sculpture.
Chinese bronzes thus represent the plastic
art of the country in its most perfect form.

Within the limits of the present article
it is impossible to follow the development
of the craft beyond the Christian era. If
the bronzes of the Han and succeeding
dynasties are to be dealt with, they must be
dealt with in a subsequent article. The in-
troduction of Buddhism into China shortly
after the Christian era effected so drastic a
change in all the arts that the Christian
era becomes the natural point of division.

The Chinese bronzes produced after the
Christian era and the decorative bronzes
of Japan (which sometimes are hardly to
be distinguished from them) have often
grace and ingenuity, and almost always
display wonderfully skilful workmanship.
These qualities alone, however, would not
entitle Chinese bronzes to the serious con-
sideration of artists and collectors. The
more ancient specimens possess in addition
that majestic simplicity of form which
makes the sculpture of Egypt and Assyria
with all its defects undeniably and inimit-
ably monumental. Assyria, by the way,
in the opinion of many sinologists, was the

original source of Chinese culture. There
are certainly many points of connexion, 2
although we have no positive proof of any
racial identity. Assyria, however, is not
the only country with which the earlier
phases of Chinese art suggest resemblances.
In the archaic pottery of Peru and Mexico
we constantly meet with a similar treat-
ment of form and similar decorative motives.
Thus it needs no very great stretch of the
imagination to picture the spread of the
ancient Chaldaean civilization through
China to the sea coast, and from that coast
across the ocean to the western shores of
America.

I have suggested that the character of
these ancient specimens of Chinese art is
monumental. Monumental art fascinates
us by the sense of power which it conveys ;
yet the power which inspires the metal-
work of the pre-historic Chinese is not its
only fascination.

European ideals of art, however much
they may be varied in different ages and
different countries, have one thing at least
in common. Though they may not always
' make for righteousness,' they seldom
appear in conflict with it. The devils of
Notre Dame, of Hieronymus Bosch, or of
'Hell' Brueghel are devilish only that
sinners may be frightened and that righ-
teousness may seem more fair. Power, in
fact,with a European artist is rendered attrac-
tive by combining it with grace and virtue.

The ancient Chinese artists do just the
reverse. They use their strength to glorify
the terrible, trie malignant, and the merci-
less. We know practically nothing of the
people for whom the earliest bronzes were
made, yet when we have once studied them
we shall understand the Chinese character
better. We shall see that, under her ancient
civilization, under all her traditions of
duty, reverence, and honesty, and under her
philosophical good breeding, there lives a

5 The recent discoveries in Eastern Chaldea seem to confirm
this connexion.

< u

u <

< -

cruelty which, if it once be aroused, can
transform the cultured disciple of Confucius
into a ferocious savage. Painting and por-
celain began to flourish after China had
been disciplined by the gentle doctrine of
Buddha. It is only in the far older art of
working in bronze that this sterner side of
Chinese national character can be seen.

Apart from their archaeological interest
and from their beautv of form, Chinese
bronzes have a quality of substance which
no other bronzes exhibit. The beautitul
green patina which we see on Creek and
Roman statues, and the more elaborate
coloured patinas discovered by the ingenuity
of the Japanese, are dull compared with the
brilliant and jewel-like incrustation with
which fine specimens of Chinese bronze
are adorned. The formation of this patina
is said to be due to the action of the soil
upon the proportions of tin, zinc, and lead
included in the alloy. It is sometimes
forged with mixtures of wax, but the
forgery being soft can easily be detected.

Though Chinese annals refer the art of
bronze-working to some two thousand
years before the Christian era, very few of
the pieces which survive appear to be
older than the Chou dynasty (b.c. 1122-
255). A certain number of specimens,
however, survive which can almost cer-
tainly be referred to the older dynasty of
Shang (b.c. 1766— i 122), and with these we
must begin our chronological series.

1 . Sacrificial bowl and cover. — Inscribed,
' Sacrificial bowl and cover made for the
tomb of Cheng Shu of Lu. May it for
10,000 years be ever preserved anu. used.' 3

Though the South Kensington label
merely describes this as ' much restored,'
perhaps anterior to the third century B.C.,
I venture to regard it as one of the very
oldest pieces of Chinese bronze in Europe,
dating perhaps from the middle of the
Shang dynasty, about 1 500 b.c The resto-
rations themselves indicate great antiquity

3 Plate II, page 21.

zArchaic Chinese Bronzes

and value ; but the heavy, solid form, simple
decoration, and rude execution, point still
more definitely to a very early date. The
barbaric treatment of the monstrous heads
on the handles can hardly be merely archa-
istic, since their handling shows the clumsy
brutality of primitive work.

2. Temple vessel. — Russet patina. 4 A
very ancient example of the altar vessel
still used in Chinese temples. It probably
dates from considerably before iooo b.c,
since it is evidently much older than two
similar vessels at South Kensington dated
750 b.c Though the original is only about
15 inches high, its proportions give it an
air of almost menacing greatness, like that
of some colossal building, an air which is
accentuated by the savage effect of the
projections on its surface. Similar pieces
seem to have been manufactured right up
to the earlier part of the nineteenth cen-
tury, and the form is thus comparatively
common both in bronze and in enamel.

3, 4. Sacrificial cup with cover decorated
with figures of monsters. — Green patina. 5
The archaic workmanship and patina of
this specimen indicate a very early date
apart from the evidence of the decora-
tion. Its interest lies in the fact that it
affords a primitive representation of the two
chief symbolical monsters of China — the
Taotieh (ogre, glutton), the symbol of the
powers of the earth, and the Dragon, the
symbol of the powers of the air. Worship
of the elements formed a large part of the
early Chinese religion. The vessel was
probably used for the wine libation, and
its form suggests that it may have been
the precursor of the dragon-handled cups
which, according to Dr. Bushell, in the
later ritual superseded the helmet-shaped
tripod libation vessels.

The Taotieh or demon of the earth looks
up from the back of the vessel. A larger
and more perfect version of his unpleasing
features will be found on the vessel repro-

* Plate III, page 24.

4 Plate II, page 21.

zArchaic Chinese Bronzes

duced in fig. 7. His lineaments in a
conventional form can be traced on the
hodv ot the cup, combined with the so-
called ' Greek key pattern,' a symbol of
the clouds among which the dragon lives.
The same decorative motive, emblem at
once ot earth and heaven, will be found
not only in still more ancient pieces such
as fig. 2, but in bronze and porcelain of
comparatively modern date. Indeed a series
of examples might be formed showing the
Taotieh in every stage, from the realism of
fig. 7 to the merest conventional pattern
on a piece ot eighteenth-centurv porcelain.
To trace the development of the Dragon
is more difficult, and it is with some hesita-
tion that I suggest that he began his career
as a bull-headed snake. The monstrous
handles in fig. 1 would then be only an
earlier form of the horned beast with grin-
ning teeth and glaring golden eyes that sur-
mounts this less ancient vessel.

A further development then follows.
Between the horns projects a smaller head,
like that of an archaic Greek bull, attached
to a rudely fashioned serpent body with a
curling tail which runs along the top of
the piece. Here in tact we seem to have
the Dragon in embryo, and a connecting
link is supplied by the Chinese catalogue
of the Imperial Collection, where an
ancient bronze is figured round which is
coiled a serpent with a monstrous bulbs
head. Add a pair of feelers and four claws
and we have the full-blown dragon.

The satyr-like face which decorates the
handle ot the piece may also be traced in
later work, getting more and more conven-
tional, and in the process losing his alert
and halt-human animalism.

5. Sacrificial tripod. — Fine green patina. 6
Described on the Museum label as anterior
to the first century b.c. It is certainly
much older, and Dr. Bushell's attribution
to the Shang dynasty, i.e. before 1 100 B.C.,
seems more probable. The tripod ba^e is

decorated with an archaic and convention-
alized form of the Taotieh monster. The
vessel was used tor cooking sacrificial
offerings of grain.

6. Sacrificial wine vase. — Russet patina. 7
An archaic example of one of the most
graceful and riower-like forms which
Chinese bronze can assume. It will be
recognized as the original model not only
of some ot the most perfect pieces of
Chinese porcelain, but also of many of the
charming bronzes of Japan. Pieces of this
form figure largely in the catalogues of the
Imperial Collection already mentioned.
For the study ot Chinese bronzes, these
catalogues are invaluable, the more so be-
cause they compel us to recognize that the
specimens we possess are far from doing jus-
tice to the power and beauty displayed by the
ancient Chinese craftsmen. The specimen
figured may date from the earlier part of
the Chou dynasty, that is to say from about

IOOO B.C.

7. Sacrificial wine vessel. — Russet and
green patina. s This magnificent specimen
ot bronze-work illustrates the art at its
culminating point towards the latter half
of the Chou dynasty, about 600 b.c In
it archaic grandeur of form is allied with
the utmost finish of execution. The real-
istic head ot the Taotieh on the front is the
most striking motive of the decoration, but
the spirit and delicacy of the maker are
exhibited more clearly in the exquisitely
modelled serpents' heads on the handles.

Yet even their poisonous serenity is less
terribly impressive than the effect of a
similar but more archaic vessel in the
Cernuschi Collection. Here the whole
surface is uniformly decorated with round
bosses, but on the body of the vase there
are the prints ot two huge hands worked
deep into the metal, as if some mighty
being had grasped it in a grip so terrible
that the bronze had become like clay under
his touch.

Plate IV, pa

Hate V, page 30.

no. 5

NO. 6

ARCHAIC CHINESE BRONZES,
PLATE IV

NO 7

NO. 8

ARCHAIC CHINESE BRONZES,
PLATE V

The earliest of the interesting vessels in
the form of real animals should perhaps be
referred to this period. The wine vase in
the shape of a rhinoceros, or hippopotamus,
at South Kensington will serve as an ex-
ample of the way in which the forms of
bulls, rams, and deer were utilized by the
Chinese bronze workers. The elephant
does not seem to have been used as a de-
corative motive till the early part of the
Han dynasty (about 200 B.C.), when animal
and bird forms become comparatively
common. These lead up to the employment
of the human figure in the first century
a.d., when the Buddhist influence first
appears in Chinese work. This introduc-
tion of realistic forms, however, does not
mark an advance in the art, but rather a
decline. The Chinese national genius is
greatest when it deals with the elemental
monsters of its imagination. Nevertheless,
at first the decline is hardly noticeable, and
the earliest specimens of inlaid work that
we possess, which would seem to be nearly
contemporary with the finest period of
pure bronze-work, show but little failure
of spirit.

8. Vessel in the form of a duck. — Inlaid
with gold and silver, emerald and vermilion
patina. 9 This, the earliest specimen of in-
laid metal-work at South Kensington, pos-
sibly dates from about 600 b.c. The colour-
effect produced by the combination of gold,
silver, and bronze, with a fine patina of
vermilion and emerald green is magnificent.
The workmanship, though ruder than that
of any other specimens I have seen, is more
elaborate than would be possible had the
art been in its infancy, and we must pre-
sume that inlaying began several centuries
before the date of this piece. Dr. Bushell
states that these vessels were used for
wine ; but one tradition represents them as
being placed on the table at imperial feasts,
and filled with water for the use of guests

9 Plate V, page 30.

^Archaic Chinese Bronzes

who feared to disgrace the Emperor's pre-
sence by getting drunk. This, or a similar
vessel, was in the collection of the Emperor
Kien-lung.

9. Flask with co"t>er in the form of a mon-
ster s head. — Inlaid with gold and silver,
emerald green patina. 10 This splendidspeci-
men of metal work must be rather later in
date than the previous example. The in-
lay and the surface are far more delicately
finished, and the date of 500 B.C. seems
reasonable for it. The monster's head upon
the cover is so grandly conceived in the
manner of the finest archaic work, that it
is incredible that the piece should be so
late as the Han dynasty, although the
beauty and finish of its execution recall
the delicate pieces of inlay produced during
that epoch. This vessel also would appear
to have been in the collection of the Em-
peror Kien-lung.

With it we may fitly conclude the pre-
sent series of notes. The later bronzes of
China are perhaps more evenly skilful than
the work of the Shang and Chou dynas-
ties, while contact with Buddhist India
and Mussulman Persia introduce many
graceful and interesting forms into the
somewhat stiff and limited designs of earlier
ages. Nevertheless those designs, whether
they are inspired by the barbaric force of
the Shang dynasty or by the exquisite
malevolence of the Chou dynasty, have a
grandeur which makes all subsequent
plastic art in China, and almost all plastic
art in Japan, by comparison seem feminine
or contorted. We may, however, under-
stand this remarkable form of art more
completely, when some of the fine oriental
collections in America are better known.

Note. — All the pieces illustrated are in
the Victoria and Albert Museum, with the
exception of the piece numbered 3 and 4,
which is in the writer's collection.

10 Plate I, page 18.

CHARLES II SILVER AT WELBECK
BY J. STARKIE GARDNER J*r*
PART I

NDER Charles I a vast
[quantity of the royal plate
|had become alienated or
pledged, even before the
necessitous times of the
'Civil War. Indeed, from
1 625, when the king's expensive favourite,
the duke of Buckingham, and the earl of
Holland were commissioned to convey a
large quantity of gold and silver plate to
Holland for sale or pledge, until 1641,
when Parliament accused the queen of
having conveyed another large consign-
ment of royal plate to the same destination,
the process of depletion of the Treasury
continued. In those days the king dined
in public in royal state, as seen in the pic-
ture by Van Barren at Hampton Court,
and the great traditional decoration of the
banqueting hall was the buffet of several
stages loaded with plate. The voids
created perhaps had to be filled, and from
failing revenues. A disposition to produce
plate disproportionate as to its display to
the weight of silver employed indeed now
becomes evident for the first time in the
history of the silversmith's craft in Eng-
land. Flat, hollow ware, such as dishes
and saucers, of extremely thin metal, crudely
designed and executed, make their first ap-
pearance as the troubled times of about
1 634 are approached. Several of these are
illustrated in the large work on ' Old Silver
Work,' recently published by Messrs. Bats-
ford.

The idea of embossing relatively ex-
tremely thin silver into dishes, etc., seems
to have reached us from Holland at a time
when the king's court was much frequented
by artists and others from that country ; for
those produced are not in English contem-
porary taste. Sir Samuel Montagu pos-
sesses a large oval dish, two feet in length,
which, though made here, is in Dutch taste,
with its embossings of tulips and roses.

Under the Commonwealth the innate
English taste for plain and massive useful
silver reasserted itself, but with the restora-
tion of the monarchy comparatively thin
embossed silver again became the mode.
The well-known caudle cups and covers
on mounted salvers, boldly embossed with
tulips and acanthus decoration, appear as
early as 1658. It was not, however, till
towards the end of the reign that any os-
tentatious use of silver set in. This was,
no doubt, in the first place due to the ex-
ample set by Spain, gorged with precious
metals from the New World, where the
indispensable brasero was commonly made
in silver, as well as bedsteads, baths, and
almost every article of furniture. Madame
de Motteville affords glimpses of the tables
of silver and the silver balustrade to the bed
of the Spanish queen of Louis XIII ; and
Sully mentions that the father-in-law of
Fouquet, who was Controller-General of
Castille, possessed furniture, such as was
elsewhere of wood, made of solid silver.

With such examples Louis XIV was not
likely to let the court silversmiths languish
for want of patronage, and they were kept
actively employed. Work on the most
grandiose scale was produced for him in
the ateliers of the Louvre, and at the estab-
lishment subsequently known as the Gobe-
lins. So massive was it that, whenever the
king's coffers failed, it was immediately
melted and minted. Much as Charles II
might have desired to vie with this magnifi-
cence, either good sense or necessity prevail-
ed, and our 'silver age ' continued to make a
display, without locking up such masses of
the precious metal as to lead to its entire
consignment to the melting pot. The sil-
ver toilet tables, so splendid in effect, are
of wood coated with plaques of embossed
silver, and the tall gueridons which flanked
them and the frames of the mirrors are
similarly constructed. The silver sconces

Xo. I. DUTCH COVERED JARS.

No. 2. ENGLISH I

'Al BEA K E R S .

SILVER OF THE CHARLES II. PERIOD IN
THE COLLECTION OF THE DUKE OF
PORTLAND, K.G. PLATE I.

j. DUTCH FLASK-SHAPED VASES.

' NO. 4. Dl 5K-SHAPED VASE AND ENGLISH COVERED JARS.

SILVER OK THE CHARLES II. PERIOD IN

THE COLLECTION OF THE DUKE OF
PORTLAND. K.G. PLATE II.

are also embossed, and the imposing pot-
pourri jars and garnitures are of sheet silver,
none too stout, but rich in effect. These
are still to be seen in some of the houses
of the great. The most notable sets be-
long to Lord Sackville, Earl Cowper, the
the earl of Home, and the duke of Rut-
land. The little-known series belonging to
the duke of Portland yields to none of these,
either in number or quality, and as no suite
has yet been illustrated in its entirety, no
apology is needed for presenting it to our
readers.

The Welbeck suite comprises two sets,
one of them English and the other Dutch.
The Dutch suite includes the three covered
jars illustrated, 1 the centre one being
1 6|inches high and weighing 87 oz., while
the smaller pair, in a somewhat mutilated
condition, weigh but 85 oz. together. With
these are the two pairs of flask-shaped vases
shown in illustrations 3 and 4.* All
were produced at the Hague, and bear the
seventeenth - century corporate mark— a
bird on a shield under a coronet ; the seven-
teen-century state control mark — a ram-
pant lion on a shield under a coronet ; and
the date-letter E on a shield under a coro-
net, not hitherto determined. The large
jar and the two covered flasks have in ad-
dition an anchor for maker's mark ; and
the gourd-shaped flasks bear for maker's
mark A Lconjoined between pellets beneath
a hunter's horn on a shaped shield under
acoronet. The covered bottles are finches
high, and weigh 53 oz. ; the uncovered
are nearly 1 6 inches high, and weigh 88 oz.

The English suite is the handsomer and
more massive with finer embossing. Thus,
though the large jar 3 is only ij inches
higher than the Dutch it weighs 103 oz.
against 87 oz. The fine pair of covered
beakers, 14 inches high, which accompany
it, 3 weigh jy oz., and the set is completed
by the two covered jars, 8 inches high,
weighing 48 oz., seen in No. 4, 2 finely

1 No. 1, Plate I, page 33. 2 p] a t e II, page 36.

3 No. 2, Plate I, page 33.

Charles II Silver at JVelbecl^

embossed with tulips and anemones. Both
the large jars are minutely described and
figured to a large scale in 'Old English
Silver,' recently published by Batsford.

These pot-pourri jars and garnitures are
oriental in their shapes, following fairly
closely the well-known outlines of Chinese
and Japanese pottery, which had begun to
find its way into Holland and England in
the reign of Elizabeth. The ' Chinese '
surface decoration which was then being
applied extensively to silver ware in Eng-
land, was evidently not considered suitable
to such purely decorative pieces, which
had to hold their own amidst the heavy
brocades, tapestry, pictures, and gilded
furniture of the palatial abodes of the
last quarter of the seventeenth century.
A bold surface decoration in high relief
was required, and this must have been taken
at the outset to some extent from the
French, though with a Dutch rendering.
Acanthus leaves, festoons of fruit, arrange-
ments of tulips, roses, and anemones, laurel
wreaths and pendants, all in matted work,
relieved with burnishing, with sometimes
gadroons, cameos, or amorini, were the
stock designs, applied in a broad effective
manner and not courting too close an in-
spection.

The suites seem, unlike the garnitures
of Chinese porcelain which inspired them,
to have been got together at different times,
and the pieces not all from one maker.
Few of them are marked or dated, plate
for the King's use being exempt from duty,
and His Majesty having good naturedly
' franked ' that for his entourage also. Or
the Welbeck suite only the covered beakers
are marked, — C L reversed in monogram
under a sun, date 1676. Of the suite at
Belvoir, comprising six covered jars, a pair
of beakers \h\ inches high, and a pair of
flask-shaped vases, only the latter are marked
with T I and two scallops, probably for
Thomas Issod, 1681. The suites at Knole
and Panshanger are without marks. No

£harles II Silver at Welbecl^

piece bears any crest or armorial bear-
ings, and records of their purchase have
not so tar been met with in any pub-
lished household accounts.

They were, however, extremely popular,
and the jars are frequently represented in
the well-known pictures of still-life by
Peter Roestraten, a son-in-law and pupil of
the great Frans Hals. He was born in 1627,
and died in London at the age of 71.
There are examples of his paintings, in-
cluding such jars, at Hampton Court and
Chatsworth. A gilt jar of slightly different
shape is represented in the portrait of Mary
Davis by Sir Peter Lely in the National
Gallery. It was the display made by these
and the silver tables, guer/'dons, sconces,
andirons, and mirrors that excited the ire
of Evelyn, who wrote as to his visit to the
duchess of Portsmouth's room in White-
hall Palace : ' That which engaged my
curiosity was the rich and splendid furni-
ture of this woman's apartments, now twice
or thrice pulled down and rebuilt to satisfy
her prodigal and expensive pleasures, whilst
Her Majesty does not exceed some gentle-
men's ladies in furniture and accommoda-
tion. Here I saw the new fabric of French
tapestry, .... japan cabinets, screens,
pendule clocks, great vases of white plate,
tables, stands, chimney furniture, sconces,
branches, braseras, etc., all of massive silver,
and out of number, besides some of His
Majesty's best paintings.' And again, in
1675, 'such many pieces of plate, whole
tables, and stands of incredible value.' In
1673 Evelyn visited Goring House, and
was struck with the ' silver jars and vases,
cabinets, and other so rich furniture ' of the
countess of Arlington's dressing room.
This must about coincide with their first
introduction into England, as Evelyn adds
that he had seldom seen such.

Silver braziers, like the warming pans,
were indispensable articles in the sleeping
or dressing apartments of the great. None
have escaped destruction ;' but if we may

judge from the iron braziers still preserved
at Hampton Court, they were large flat-
tened basins with wide rim and domed and
perforated covers, standing upon tripods.
Their use penetrated from Spain to the
Low Countries and France. Louis XIV
possessed eight in 1689, most of them
chased in large gadroons and decorated
with masks, festoons, and foliage, and they
stood on ball, dragon, or griffin leet ; five
are distinguished as braziers d'argent cfEs-
pagne. In the same year their production
and sale was forbidden in France, as were
many other large pieces of plate, because
they absorbed so much of the silver needed
for currency. Used at the same time were
stands for burning incense or pastilles. The
earl of Chesterfield possesses an exquisite
specimen of French design of the period of
Louis XIII, about 1630, 9J inches high.

The duke of Portland is also the for-
tunate owner of a silver incense burner,
dating probably from about 1670. 4 It has
the Hague marks, the crowned bird and
rampant lion, the anchor maker's mark,
and crowned D for date mark of an alpha-
bet which has unfortunately not yet been
deciphered. It weighs over 60 oz., and
consists of a bulbous bowl supported on
three grotesque horned dragons with claw-
and-ball feet, and low cover, upon which
a second smaller bowl is seated, with a high
pepper-castor cover and vase-shape knob.
Practically the whole surface is fashioned
of a design of chased anemones, tulips and
foliage, matted and burnished, with the
interstices pierced. It has a singularly
Turkish or Indian appearance. A speci-
men, almost the counterpart of this though
of different proportion, is owned by the
duke of Rutland, and was made in London
in 1677, by I. H. It is illustrated in ' Old
Silver Work.' In the Roestraten picture
at Chatsworth another almost identical
example is represented.

4 Plate III, page 39, No. 5.

(To be concluded next month.)

NO. 5

SILVER OK THE '
PERIOD IN THE COLLECTION OF
THE DUKE OF PORTLAND, K.G.
PLATE III, INCENSE BURNER

MINOR ENGLISH FURNITURE MAKERS
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
J& BY R. S. CLOUSTON J5T*
ARTICLE VI— ROBERT AND RICHARD

OF THE

GILLOW

'UR knowledge of the cir-
cumstances of most of the
famous eighteenth-century
furniture makers is ex-
ceedingly limited, being
in many cases confined to
the books they published ; but much more
information has been preserved regarding
the firm of Gillows, both as men and
workmen, though they never advertised
themselves, like so many of their contem-
poraries, by producing a book. One rea-
son for this is that the business has been
carried on continuously for over two hun-
dred years, and though for a considerable
time no one of the name has taken an
active interest in it, both books and papers
have been carefully preserved. The ' cost
books' of the firm, in which, latterly at
least, it was usual for the clerk who kept
them to insert rough sketches of the pieces
mentioned, form a perfect mine of infor-
mation, unobtainable elsewhere, regarding
the introduction and growth of certain
styles. These are rendered all the more
useful from the tact that they were not
show drawings got up to attract attention,
but records of actual furniture made in the
Lancaster workshops.

Robert Gillow, the founder of the firm,
seems to have been entirely a self-made
man. Somewhere about the close of the
seventeenth century he left Great Single-
ton, and went to Lancaster, in which city
he started business as a joiner. Even after
he had attained to affluent circumstances
he did not disdain working with his own
hands at garden palings and jobs of a simi-
lar character, for all was fish that came to
Robert Gillow's net. That the joiner's
shop should have grown into a high-class

1 For Articles I to V, see Vol. IV, page 227 ; Vol. V, page 173 ;
Vol. VI, pages 47, 210, 402 (March, May, October, December,
1904 ; February, 1905).

furniture-making business is only what
might be expected to happen in 'the case
of a man of his force of character ; but
it is curious to find him setting up as
somewhat of a general trader. 1 I is choice
of Lancaster as the place for carrying on
his business probably led to this. It-
shipping came next to that of Bristol, and
it struck Robert Gillow that money was
to be made by exporting English-made
furniture, which he did on a very large
scale. As he seems to have accepted
payment in kind, he made a double profit
by selling the imported goods himself, and
one of his chief trading places being the
West Indies, he became a licensed dealer
in rum. He was a furniture maker, an
undertaker, a jobbing carpenter, and a
spirit merchant. In fact, he put his hand
to anything and everything that came in
his way without stopping to consider
whether it was either high class or
artistic.

Somewhere about 1740 Robert Gillow
began shippingfurniture to London, which,
considering that this was about Thom;b
Chippendale's best period, must have ap-
peared to some of his friends almost as
unwise as the proverbial sending of coals
to Newcastle. Robert Gillow, however,
knew what he was about. Neither he nor
his son Richard, whom he took into partner-
ship in 1 757, ever posed as a great designer;
in fact, from this point of view, they
greatly undervalued their creations; but
they prided themselves, and with justice,
on the finish and excellence of their work-
manship. These tentative shipments must
have met with a ready sale in the metro-
polis, for as early at least as 1744 Gillow
started a London branch, which he de-
scribes in his ledger as ' The Adventure to
London,' a phrase which suggests rather

English Furniture Makers — Th

some barbarous and newly-discovered
country than the first city of the world.

For some time the London branch of
the business appears in the directory as
' Gillow & Barton, near the Custom
House, Thames Street ' ; but in 1765 they
took a lease of the land on which their
present business premises are situated.
This is another curious instance of Robert
Gillow's propensity for never doing any-
thing like other people. Instead of setting
up in St. Martin's Lane, the Tottenham
Court Road, or some other centre of the
industry, he built his new premises in
what were then the very outskirts of Lon-
don, where but few people passed, except
when they went to see a hanging at
' Tiburn.' But what for the ordinary man
would have been merely courting disaster,
only brought to Gillow his accustomed
success, and ' The Adventure to London '
soon became a principal part of his busi-
ness.

The firm continually changed its desig-
nation. Barton seems either to have died
or dropped out, and when the move was
made to Oxford Street it was as Gillow
& Taylor. Taylor died shortly afterwards,
and the firm became Gillows — Robert,
Richard & Thomas; in 1790 Robert Gil-
low & Co., and in 181 1 (on the death of
Richard) G. & R. Gillow 6c Co. The
London partners were probably taken into
the firm rather as salesmen than practical
cabinet makers, for all the furniture con-
tinued to be made in Lancaster. The
only available means of carriage between
Lancaster and London for large consign-
ments of goods was by sea, which probably
accounts for the choice of the Thames
Street shop in the first instance ; and a
possible explanation of how the Gillows
were enabled to compete with other cabi-
net makers in London is that they them-
selves, being foreign merchants as well as
cabinet makers, imported the mahogany
of which most of their furniture was made.

e Gillows

Richard Gillow, who was made a full
partner at the age of twenty-three, was a
man of just as strong character as his
father. Though Robert made a business
out of nothing, and even in his old. age
retained the enthusiasm and business dash
of youth, it was Richard who raised it to
the front rank. The old joiner had prob-
ably felt the want of education, and being
a Catholic sent his son to the famous
college of Douay. That Richard Gillow
thus had the education of a gentleman may
partly account for the fact that the firm
had on its books not only the names of the
greater part of the nobility, but of royalty
itself; and may also, apart from the tho-
roughness of the work they turned out,
explain how so much of Adam's furniture
design was entrusted to them.

Richard Gillow was somewhat of a cha-
racter, and cared nothing for prince or
peer. Several stories are told of him illus-
trating the independence of his attitude
when dealing with the most exalted per-
sonages, and one of these, though it has
already been told elsewhere, gives a side of
his character so thoroughly that I make
no excuse for repeating it. He was one
day showing a table, priced eighty guineas,
to a nobleman : ' It's a devil of a price,'
said his lordship. ' It's a devil of a table,'
replied the independent salesman, and the
deal was concluded there and then.

It is not known whether Richard Gillow
had any special architectural training, but
it is probable that he had ; for from the
time of his joining the firm they had a
considerable business as architects. The
Lancaster Custom House was designed by
him, and is a very meritorious piece of
work in the Adam style ; and that he also
had technical knowledge of this subject is
evidenced by the fact that he not only
made out ail the required specifications,
but himself superintended its erection.

He was also somewhat of an inventive
genius. The first billiard table emanated

English Furniture Makers — The Gi//oTvs

from him, and in 1800 he invented and
patented the telescopic dining table, one
of the most useful of furniture inventions,
and certainly, of all such patents, the most
universally used. It is probable, from the
artistic capacity shown in his architecture,
that Richard either made or superintended
the designs of the firm, and it is by no
means unlikely that it is to his inventive
faculty we owe the ' shield-back ' chair,
usually associated with the name of
Hepplewhite. The first rough sketch for
a chair of this kind which occurs in the
Gillows' books is dated 1782, and if not
the first must at least have been among
the earlier specimens of the shape. In
1788 there is a sketch in the cost book of
a chair which has a back composed of
interlacing hearts, a shape that is usually
credited to Hepplewhite, but does not
appear in the ' Guide.' The design would
seem to be more correctly assigned to the
Gillows, for it is so graceful and striking
that, had such a pattern been made by
Hepplewhite, it is impossible to under-
stand its exclusion from his book, since it
is equal to most of the best of his plates,
and very distinctly better than the greater
proportion of them.

The chair sketched in the cost book has
a shaped front and arms of the same pattern
as are seen in the chair made for Mr. de
Trafford 2 in the following year ; but the
single chair illustrated 3 sufficiently explains
the general idea of the design. In both of
these chairs there are marked differences
from what, so far as the evidence goes, was
the use and wont of the time, not only in
the very distinctive treatment of the backs,
but in that of the arms. Sheraton gives no
arm of the kind ; and though Hepplewhite,
in one of his cabrioles, makes use of the
patera on the terminal, it is not only
without other carving, but is distinctly
different in shape. It was, however, con-
tinually used by the Gillows, and may

* J No. 2, Plate I, page 43.

3 No. 3, Plate I, page 45.

therefore be considered as originating with
them.

If the differences between these sketches
and the published designs of the time were
found only in a few isolated instances, it
would be manifestly unfair to base on them
a claim to special originality of conception ;
for the omission of any particular form from
a book such as the ' Guide ' does not neces-
sarily prove that it was not manufactured
in the Hepplewhite workshops. It would,
in fact, be still more surprising if the cost
books of any firm of the time, had they
been preserved, did not show similar differ-
ences ; but the extent to which these occur
in the Gillows' books, and the marked
nature of the differentiation, are so striking
as to make it impossible to deny an artistic
and original personality.

The connexion of the firm with the
Adams is evidenced by pieces such as the
commode illustrated, 4 but at least a dozen
years before the death of Robert Adam
they had acquired a distinctive style of
their own. The sketchy but undeniable
examples to be found in their books are far
too numerous for illustration or even for
descriptive mention, and at least some of
them may be safely credited to the firm.
We have, for instance, the first ladder-back
chair, 5 which probably assumed the shape
we know it best by about the middle of the
eighties, but which, though an important
part of the design of the period, is un-
noticed elsewhere. Then there are several
sideboard tables of quite a new shape, in
which grace of design has been happily
blended with attention to use as pieces of
dining-room furniture. They are semi-
circular, and, as the line of the front follows
that of the back, a servant standing in the
concave space in front could reach, almost
without moving, any dish placed upon it. G

It is remarkable, too, that in several in-
stances where the Gillows differ from the
other workers of the eighties we find the

4 No. 4, Plate I, page 43.
* No. 5, Plate II, page 48. ■ No. 7. Plate II, page 48.

English Furniture Makers— The Gil lorn

designs reproduced with only a few minor
alterations by Sheraton several years later.

Such an instance of Sheraton's un-
acknowledged indebtedness to Gillows is
the ' broken fronted ' pier table facing
page 371 of the ' Drawing Book,' which is
practically identical with the Gillows' work
of five years before. 7 This design can, prac-
tically with certainty, be claimed for them.
At the time of its manufacture Sheraton
had not even come to London, and there
is nothing resembling its lines either in the
' Guide ' or in the original sketches by
Robert Adam preserved at the Soane Mu-
seum.

The white decorated chair illustrated 8
also differs both from Hepplewhite and
Sheraton, the latter of whom consistently
avoided the pure shield shape for the top
rail, while the two outer banisters differ
from both designers by reversing the outer
curve of the shield.

To a prospectus or a trade advertisement
one very naturally applies the old rule of
taking half the assumed amount and divid-
ing it by three. To accept any business
firm at their own estimate of themselves
would, as a rule, show a considerable lack
of judgement ; yet if I do not take the firm
of Gillows as it existed at the end of the
eighteenth century at the valuation of the
same firm to-day, it is because, from my
point of view, that valuation is too low.
In a small historical account of the firm
recently published by them, to which I am
indebted for the biographical part of this
article, no claim is made to a place in
English furniture design. They say, and
with reason, that their furniture of the date
we are considering was of the best from
the point of view of construction, but they
do not go further. As regards the work
executed by them through the greater part
of the nineteenth century this is absolutely
true, just as it was of that of most other
firms. ' That's the worst about them,' said

J No. 8, Plate II, page 48. 8 No. 6, Plate II, page 48.

Whistler, speaking suo more, regarding the
pigments supplied by the artists' colourmen
of the present day, ' they ivont fade ' ; and
my chief objection to the furniture of the
nineteenth century is that the most of it
can only be destroyed by the use of a sledge
hammer. During this most terrible period
in the history of our design the Gillows
became a much too accurate reflex of sur-
rounding influences,and their finished work-
manship, where every joint and tenon was
made only too well, is a thing to be deplored ;
but, during the lifetime of Richard Gillow,
or at least that part of it when he was
presumably at his best, it would seem, as
far as the evidence goes, that they were not
followers of any particular man or school,
but actually pioneers.

In the books of the firm several of the
designs appear under names by which they
would not now be recognized. A ' fiddle-
back chair ' is the description given to what
we now know as ' ladder-back,' and the
name would seem to have originated from
a fancied resemblance between the open
spaces in the lateral bars and the sound
holes of a violin. The ' shield back,' too,
began life as the ' camel back,' presumably
from its central hump, while the chairs
with a rounded stay rail and straight up-
rights are described as ' pan-back.'

With much that is new there is also in
these books much that is old ; in fact, as
far as my knowledge goes, they give almost
the only historical data of the resuscitation,
so common in the furniture of the con-
cluding years of the eighteenth century, of
antiquated forms. Corner chairs we find
revived in the eighties, the only difference
between them and their predecessors of fifty
years before being that all the legs are
square. This shape is by no means un-
common, and must have been produced in
very considerable quantities.

It was not, however, solely by the de-
signs of the middle Chippendale period
that the Gillows and other workers of their

] . KARL'. CARD I \ I I I

CHAIR MADE IN 1 M BE 1

I WITH BACK in- INTERLACING HEARTS

.|. COMMODE IN ADAM

■<

FURNITURE BY ROBERT AND
RICHARD GILLOW. PLATE I

English Furniture Makers — The Gil lows

time were affected, though with regard to
this it is difficult to say if the later pieces
which suggest Ince's and sometimes Man-
waring's work of the sixties might not
rather be called survivals. One of the most
interesting of such designs given in the
Gillows' cost books is of a table with a
fretwork gallery, which, except that the
legs bend outwards in the manner known
as ' turned-out toes,' is scarcely distinguish-
able from Ince.

The Gillows seem to have avoided the
Chinese influence, though having a strong
leaning to the ' Gothic,' which would tend
to show that their productions were not
entirely dependent on the popular taste of
the moment. There is indeed the evidence
of a strong personality, usually leaning to
artistic restraint, throughout their work.
This is all the more remarkable when we
remember that much of Robert Adam's
later and more gorgeous work was executed
by them, and we should expect to find his
influence paramount.

Though the Gillows did not, to quote
a phrase from a well-known writer on other

matters, l arrogate to themselves a person-
ality,' they showed their pride in the work
they produced by stamping most of it with
the name of the firm. If all other makers
had been careful to do the same, the fur-
niture of the eighteenth century would not
only have been rendered more interesting,
as including more of the personal element,
but its study would have been vastly easier
than it now is.

The Gillows were one of the few firms
of furniture makers who took a foremost
place both in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries ; and it is unfortunate, though
easily understood, that their name should
have come to be chiefly connected in the
minds of most people with early and middle
Victorian designs. 9 If Richard Gillow had
thought it worth his while to publish a
book of designs about the same time as
Hepplewhite produced the ' Guide,' there
might well be two opinions as to whose
name we should now use in describing the
style.

9 It need hardly be said that, at the present day, the firm is
no longer in the Victorian era of household decoration.

A PICTURE OF ST. JEROME ATTRIBUTED TO TITIAN

J5T* BY C. J. HOLMES J&

[OME months ago a picture
)of St. Christopher attri-
buted to Solario from the
collection of Mr. W. J.
Davies of Hereford was re-
produced in The Burling-
ton Magazine. 1 One or two other pic-
tures in the same collection also deserve
detailed study, and among them a painting
of St. Jerome in a landscape attributed to
Titian. This painting, which measures
2 feet i\ inches by 3 feet 3J inches, came
from the collection of a country clergyman,
and its previous history is unknown.

A glance shows that the picture has suf-
fered considerably from over-cleaning and
restoration. The whole of the sky has
been worked over until the original design
and colour can be traced but dimly. This
cleaning was so drastic that it has falsified
or even obliterated the original tree forms
where they strike across the sky, and the
damage has been repaired by clumsy and
awkward repainting. The treatment of
the foreground and middle distance was
rather less cruel, but the lighter portions
have been rubbed away until little more
than the underpaint is visible. The figure
of the saint also has obviously been re-
touched. The quality of the picture in
consequence must not be judged from its
general effect, especially since the repro-
duction is much heavier in tone than the
original painting.

The design of the piece must first be con-
sidered. This is obviously identical with
the large woodcut of the subject 2 which
Morelli ('Italian Painters,' II, p. 94), when
discussing Campagnola's work, mentions as
either actually executed by Titian himself
or, at all events, engraved from a design
by him, calling it ' a splendid composition
which would not be unworthy of Rubens.'

1 Vol. V, page 573 (September 1904).

8 Generally recognized as belonging to the series executed by
Nicolo Boldrini after Titian.

The painting can hardly be a copy from
the print. It is only necessary to compare
the uninjured portions of the foliage on
the right for this to be clear. There is a
resemblance in the arrangement of the
masses, but the painting is far more free,
more natural, and more intricate. The
obvious conclusion is that the picture is
prior to the print, and the original of which
the print is a simplified version. This view
is rather confirmed by other changes in de-
tail necessitated by the current technique
of engraving, such as the omission of com-
plicated passages of foliage all over the
picture. The exact date of the print is un-
known, but it cannot be much later than
the middle of the sixteenth century. Un-
less then we are to assume that both print
and picture are copies of some lost original
(a convenientsolution,but one which should
not be adopted unless no other is possible),
we must admit that the picture was painted
in Titian's lifetime.

We may now consider what evidence
there is for connecting the work with Titian
himself. The execution of the upper por-
tion of the trees on the left, the texture of
the ground, and the saint's figure cannot be
used as arguments againt Titian's author-
ship, since they are plainly retouched. On
the other hand, the sleeping lion in the fore-
ground is exceedingly like Titian's work
in the Brera St. Jerome, and the sparkle and
decision with which the stream is painted
both in its fall and eddying course are
characteristic of Titian. It deserves to be
compared with the stream in the background
of the St. John in the Venice Academy.

The dark rocks on the right with part
of the fringe of foliage above them have
escaped the restorer's hand. These boughs
and slender trees are swept in with an easy
vigorous certainty (which would be im-
possible for a copyist) and with a knowledge
of growth and fibrous structure unknown

C
_

I- _1

e --

Z _

! c

- r

b z

*A Picture of St. Jerome Attributed to "Titian

to Venetian painting except in the work
of Titian. The modelling of the rocks be-
low (e.g., the stone in front of the cross)
shows a similar feeling for structure, and
it is difficult to connect this portion of
the picture with any mere imitator. It
should be added that the photograph gives
too hard and mechanical a version of the
painting of the retouched foliage on the
left, which far more nearly resembles
Titian's work in the Noli Me Tangere
than the reproduction suggests. The mo-
tive of the running deer will be remem-
bered as occurring in the Titian drawing
once in the possession of Professor Legros
and now in that of Mr. Warren of Lewes.

As Mr. Claude Phillips pointed out in
his ' Later Work of Titian ' (pp. 1 3 and 1 4),
a picture of St. Jerome was painted in
1 53 1, which cannot be identified with
that in the Louvre or that in the Brera,
since these are both much later in style.
Dr. Gronau ('Titian,' p. 1 66) is of the same
opinion. 3 The design of our picture is
clearly much earlier than these. The
brownish semi-transparent painting, the
' conceit ' of the two lions and the lioness
recall a period when Titian had not for-
gotten Giorgione. At the same time the
delightful freshness of the stream and the
massive tree trunks on the left suggest an
art that is mature. The date of 1 53 1 might
thus be possible if we supposed that Titian
in this case was completing a composition
begun much earlier.

Now this St. Jerome of 1531 was com-
missioned, together with a St. Mary Mag-
dalene, by Federigo Gonzaga for Vittoria
Colonna. Gonzaga writes to her that he
is putting pressure on Titian, ' ricercando-
lo con grande instantia a volerne fare una
bella lagrimosa piu che si so puo, e farmela
haver presto.' Gonzaga we see was specially
anxious about the Magdalene, and it is

8 Other versions of the subject, not from Titian's hand, are
mentioned by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ' Titian,' vol. i, p. 352.

possible that Titian, being hurried, worked
up a St. Jerome designed much earlier, and
put hiswholestrength into the other subject.
It is the Magdalene to which the letters
refer and with which Gonzaga is delighted.
We have thus no reason for supposing that
the St. Jerome was one of Titian's most
striking and important works.

More experienced students of Titian
must decide whether Mr. Davies's painting
may not be identified with this vanished
St. Jerome of 1 5 3 1 . The execution ought,
I think, to be judged by the unrestored
portion on the right-hand side of the pic-
ture. There the free and easy treatment
of the foliage at the top, the sense of
structure, weight and texture in the rocks,
the delightful sharpness and truth of the
foaming eddies and ripples in the brook,
with certain touches of extreme delicacy,
the slender cross, the creases between the
leaves of the book (invisible in the plate),
and the rosary by the side of the kneeling
saint have the true Titianesque note, con-
tradicting the heaviness introduced by the
restorer into the more conspicuous portions
of the work.

To sum up : these masterly passages have
a freedom and an instinct for natural struc-
ture which was Titian's unique gift, and
was not possessed either by his companions
or by the skilful admirers and copyists who
followed him. It is to draw attention to
these qualities, and to prevent too hasty
judgement being passed on the general
appearance of the reproduction, that almost
unfair stress has been laid upon the resto-
rations. These do not in reality interfere
very much with the effect of the original,
yet to them doubtless it has hitherto owed
its obscurity. Otherwise it is incredible
that so interesting a composition, identical
with one of the famous woodcuts asso-
ciated with Titian's name, should have
been overlooked so long.

OPUS ANGLICANUM
^r* BY MAY MORRIS J8T»

III— THE PI

/* < THERE is a startling con-

^ trast between the cope of
the Popes and the Pienza
cope, the one reserved
and fastidiously simple,
the other full of move-
ment, and full of detail of
incident and of ornament. This cope, said
to have been given to the cathedral of
Pienza by Pius II (1498), is a complete and
very splendid piece of early fourteenth-
century English work of the ' tabernacle '
type, and one of the few pieces that remain
intact. 2 There is not in it the strong indi-
vidual note that is found in the Ascoli
Cope, but the drawing is crisp and in-
ventive. The composition of the groups
is much the same as in contemporary
manuscripts. The cope has its broad
orphrey, its narrow encircling border, and
its curious triangular pendant, the remains
of the hood. The design of the body
of the cope consists of three concentric
rows of niches or tabernacles fantastically
drawn, but reflecting the characteristics of
contemporary architecture, i.e. the earliest
days of the fourteenth century. The lowest
row is devoted to the history of two saints,
Katharine of Alexandria and Margaret ot
Antioch. I give a list of the subjects, be-
ginning on the left at the bottom : —

1. St. Margaret, with a distaff, tending
sheep, to whom comes a king, smitten with
her love. 3

2. She is brought before him. 3

3. She is in prison, and issues from the
dragon who had devoured her. 3

4. She is tempted of the devil and over-
comes him, and ' a dove descended from
heaven and set a golden crown upon her
head.' 3

5. She is tortured in the presence of the

1 For Articles I and II see Vol. VI, pp. 278 and 440 (January
and March, 1905).

2 See plate I, page 55. » Plate II, page 58.

ENZA COPE 1

king (or provost), beaten with rods and torn
with iron combs. (On this subject there
is a patch showing a beautiful scrap of
fourteenth-century figured stuff.) 4

6. St. Margaret appears twice. She is
boiled in a great vessel of water (with a
singularly irritating and sanctimonious up-
ward look), and from this trial she issues
unhurt. In the Golden Legend, it is here
that the dove descends and crowns her. The
executioner pours water over her in a ladle.
Her final beheading is also shown here, and
an angel hovers, receiving her spirit in a
fair cloth. 4

7. St. Katharine of Alexandria, a stately
figure crowned and attended by her court,
comes before the Emperor Maxentius, to
protest against the sacrifice to false idols
and the killing of Christians in the streets. 4

8. She argues with the rhetoricians and
grammarians sent by the emperor to con-
found her. 4

9. The learned men, who are converted,
suffer martyrdom, being burnt in the midst
of the city. Their torturers are a black
man and a Scythian, the latter with the
feathered cap which appears in the Ascoli
cope. Their spirits fly upwards as a flock
of doves. 4

10. Katharine being cast into prison, the
empress comes by night to visit her, ac-
companied by Porphyry, ' the prince of
knightes.' Within the prison an angel is
solacing the saint with music. 5

1 1 . Katharine is brought before the
emperor, a truculent person, finely dressed
in a jewelled mantle. He is ' wode for
anger,' and threatens her with a sword. 5

12. Katharine being set among the
wheels, they are broken asunder by two
angels from heaven, slaying 2,000 paynims,
who may here be seen in fragments. 5

13. This presents the beheading of the

4 Plate I, page 55. 6 Plate III, page 61.

PLATE II. PORTION OF THE
PIENZA COPE

Opus Anglican um — The r Pienza Cope

saint, her body being carried to Mount
Sinai by two angels. 6

An interesting feature about this cope is
the row of twelve Apostles in the span-
drils above this lowest series. They are
all named and bear scrolls inscribed with
the Creed, thus laying stress on the tradi-
tion that each of the Twelve contributed
his word thereto. It begins with Peter,
the sixth figure, reads onwards, and thence
starts on the left with Bartholomew. 7 These
figures are drawn in crouching attitudes,
curiously realistic and intense in expression.

It will be noted that the ' roofs' of the
spandrils and the ' floors ' of the next panels
are formed of wreaths of fanciful variety.
The ' ties ' of the net (being the bases of
the columns) are beasts, demons, and en-
twined dragons. The next row presents
the life of Our Lady : —

i. The angels appear to the Apostles
after the Resurrection. Peter only bears
his attribute. 8

2. The Presentation of the Virgin in the
Temple by Joachim and Anna. The cross
on the breast of the priest and on the altar
is very much insisted on. Mr. Mickle-
thwaite's notes on this subject should be
referred to. 9

3. The Marriage of Joseph and Mary. —
Joseph leaning on a staff holds the ring in
his finger; and the High Priest, fully vested
as a bishop, takes his hand. A tonsured
chaplain carries the crozier. 8

4. The Annunciation. 8

5. The Nativity. 10

6. The Angel appearing to the Shepherds
on a flowery, wooded hill. He bears a scroll
inscribed with 'Gloria in excelsis Deo.' One
shepherd in the distance blows a horn, and
his dog bays in sympathy. The mediaeval
artist always strikes a charmingly intimate

6 Plate III, page 61.

7 See a paper on this cope by J. T. Micklethwaite in the Pro-
ceedings of the Society of Antiquaries. London, April 5, 1883 ;
also another paper by him on May 12, 1887.

8 Plate II, page 58.

9 Plate II, page 58. See Micklethwaite, of. cit.

10 Plate I, page 55.

note in this subject, insisting on the home-
liness of the labourers to whom the mes-
sage of wonder comes. The foremost
shepherd here is warmly dressed for winter
night watching, with nice chausses or boot-
stockings, kept up by a cord triply run in
and out. 11

7. The Adoration of the Three Kings. —
The babe bends towards the crown that the
kneeling old man offers. The second king
points to the star. 11

8. The Presentation in the Temple. —
The High Priest has his hands, which are
outstretched to receive the babe, veiled in
an offertory cloth. 11

9. The Burial of the Virgin, with Peter
at the head. — The Jew who had laid hands
upon the bier is stuck fast, and is about to
be released by Peter. 11

In the spandrils above are David and
Solomon in the middle, and prophets either
side ; at one end is a realistic peacock in
the half-spandril, at the other end a phea-
sant. This is a reminiscence of a Jesse
Tree scheme, in which the Prophets often
accompany the Ancestors of the Virgin.

The subjects in the highest series are: —

1. Angel announcing the approaching
death of Our Lady. Gabriel stands ficing
her, bearing ' a bough of palm, sente from
the plante of paradise.' 12

2. The Death of Our Lady. 12

3. The Coronation. — Uninteresting. 13

4. The Assumption. — Our Lord, stand-
ing in the blue, bears the soul of the
Blessed Virgin to heaven. Seraphim sup-
port the body in a cloth, and in front two
beautiful little angels kneel, one playing a
vielle, the other a harp. 13

5. The same subject continued. — A com-
pact crowd of the Apostles, dramatically
conceived. St. Peter and St. John and the
other Apostles look down into the bier
and find itempty. At the back the Virgin's
girdle comes down from heaven into the
outstretched hands of Thomas, and above

11 Plate III. »» Plate II " Plate I.

Opus Anglicanum — The Tienza Cop

are the feet of Our Lady disappearing in
the clouds. 14

The top of the cope is occupied by-
censing angels, and the pointed hood con-
tains two delightful seraphs holding crowns
and standing on globes.

The orphrey is a magnificent piece of
pattern-work, dexterously simple and richly
effective. It presents one or two points of
special interest. It has been worked with
heraldic animals in the complete quatrefoils
(also, I think, in the half-quatrefoils) :
griffin, lion, stag, unicorn, etc.; over these
have been worked various birds, which, as
Mr. Micklethwaite observes, can hardly be
surpassed for truth to nature. On each side
of the centre are placed the phoenix and
the pelican in her nest. Then there is a
cock crowing on one side, and on the other
stands a peacock. Then comes a procession
of familiar birds, in the complete squares
mostly of the moorland and sea. There is
a falcon and another bird of the hawk
family, above a nest of young ones; a heron,
a partridge, a pheasant, and the like ; while
in the half-squares are boughs with song-
birds in the midst : thrushes, finches, a
magpie, and a pair of swallows. The narrow
border is treated in the same way, the super-
imposed creatures being alternately birds
and bright little quadrupeds, like pet-dogs,
with their tails up and barking fussily. The
eastern character of the ornament in the
interlacent of the quatrefoils should be
noted. The ground of this superb vest-
ment is wrought in gold in a diapered
pattern, differing in every panel.

I can call to mind some nine or ten of
these ' tabernacle ' copes, and there are
doubtless others. The invention in all of
them is of the same type, the admirable
invention, namely, of an organic pattern
covering the half-circle in a romantic
shadowing of the architecture of the time.
The fact that there exist nine or ten or
even more examples of a strongly-marked

u Plate III, page6i.

design, not only showing the same dex-
terity in filling the half-circle, but the
same fantasy of detail, the same twisted
leaf-columns, the same supporting beasts —
all this points to a special area, if not to a
special place, of origin. And the fact that
there were so many of these copes, all pro-
duced within a comparatively short time
— the work on them being of such a labo-
rious nature as necessarily to employ a great
many hands — points to some industrial and
commercial centre. This, as Mr. W. R.
Lethaby has observed to me, will have been
London itself, the fountain-head of all
activities. Some London workshop, it is
extremely likely, had the monopoly of
these specialized embroideries, which were
ordered and sent out all over the conti-
nent. 15

Another thing that favours this assump-
tion is the comparative sameness in choice
and treatment of subject in the 'tabernacle'
copes. Beautiful as these embroideries are,
we do not get in them the variety or free-
dom nor the imaginative touch that illu-
minates the finest of the copes based on the
circle pattern. Many of the artists who
designed these latter wander over a wider
field and show a richer, more active inven-
tion. Thus the Daroca and the Anagni
copes and the cope of St. Louis Eveque
are full of subjects handled with freshness
and originality. In the cope of St. Louis
there is a certain largeness and seriousness
about the design that has a decided French
stamp on it. Note especially a beautiful
angel at the Tomb, who sits with solemn
brooding wings shadowing the whole of
the little picture ; also some delightful pic-
tures from the Girlhood of Our Lady.
Everything, therefore, seems to suggest
that the architectural copes that show so
marked a similarity in all essentials may

15 He suggests that the cope under consideration may be the
very one for which Queen Isabella in 1317 paid 100 marks (= at
least £1,000) to ' Rose the wife of John de Bureford, citizen and
merchant of London, for an embroidered cope for the choir,
lately purchased from her to make a present to the Lord High
Pontiff from the Queen.' Issue of the Exchequer, 10 Ed. H.
See Archisological Journal, Vol. I, p. 322.

1'L.V! 1

Opus Arigli

have been produced in some big centre,
while the more notable and individual of
those of the circle-pattern may have been
the work of some of the great monastic
workshops, in France, I venture to think,
as well as in England. No record/ 6 how-
ever, throws any light upon the subject so
tar, which is the more disappointing, as
Paris, whose trades were organized by the
end of the thirteenth century, has plentiful
records and details of all her crafts, and
among them of the workshops of brodeurs
and broderesses,Jeseresses (Taufroix, etc. Their
rules are duly registered, and they come
before the Provost of Paris with their
claims and complaints ; they quarrel and
make friends, and are sent back to their
workshops comforted and refreshed, till the
next bout. Some of the names set down
might be taken from the pages of a
romance : among the hanks of silk and
sticks of gold (woe to the mditresse-broderesse
if her gold be counterfeit, for she shall be
whipped) wander Peronelle des Jardins,
Ermengarde the Lombard, with delicate
fingers and eyes intent ; there are men, too,
Lorenz the Englishman, Thevenot the
Little, and Simon the Embroiderer, who
lives with Madame Blanche. A companion-
able little fraternity they are, all living under
the wing of the Provost, in their green-
girt city, gay with its closes and gardens.
The mystery which surrounds those who
produced the English masterpieces is the
more tantalizing for these wide-open pages
from the lives of their French confreres.
Were any of these copes of a recognized
set design produced by the Paris workers ?
I venture, though with hesitation and de-
ference to other opinions, to think it doubt-
ful, at least unproven. As far as my know-
ledge goes, there are no specimens of the
tabernacle type, nor of the circle type,
that one can confidently assert, bv docu-
mentary evidence, to be of French origin.

16 In England the Broderers were not incorporated by charter
until 1561.

'icanum — The l^ienza Cope

The evidence that the pieces themselves
present, as in the case of the Ascoli cope,
is conflicting ; again, there is the cope
of St. Louis Eveque, referred to above,
which must have been designed by a
French hand, wherever it was worked.
Yet there exist certain copes of variously
evolved circle and tabernacle types which
are most certainly German. Then what
are the French craftsmen and women
doing ? They are busy enough, of course,
busy in mid-fourteenth century, over
orphreyed chasubles of astonishing verve
and finish, busy over frontals, mitres, etc.,
aumonieres of a strangely minute and indi-
vidual art, over a crowd of delightful
things ; but I confess that at present I
should be at a loss, if asked to put my
finger on a French cope I7 of these types
' signed all over,' as most of the English
ones are, though I am longing to be able
to do so. M. de Farcy has some interest-
ing notes on English characteristics, and
his work should be consulted. I myself
have perhaps a little overstepped my
limits in raising the question in these
pages.

The arrangement of the subjects in this
embroidery bears a due relation to the
hang of the vestment when in use. The
Coronation of the Blessed Virgin (nearly
always), the Crucifixion, the Annunciation,
or the Nativity will generally occupy the
middle of the cope. In the Daroca cope,
which illustrates the Creation, the first
subject is the Eternal Father resting from
his labours, with an unconventionally
designed crowd of adoring angels ; below
is the Crucifixion. The subjects are
necessarily from the same source as those
in contemporarv manuscripts. The same
grouping in the subjects themselves recurs
again and again. The Three Kings ador-
ing, one pointing to the Star, the Kings

'" The St. Louis cope at St. Maximin (Var) I have not seen,
and know only by a poor ' key ' drawing, and also by some recent
drawings kindly shown me by the artist Mrs. McClure. These
latter make me keenly anxious to see the cope itself, which is a
noble piece of the circle type.

Opus Anglicanum — 'The T^ienza Cope

asleep in their bed with their crowns on ;
the Angel appearing to the Shepherds,
one of whom pipes, and his sheep skip on
a flowery hill, while the little dog sings
with sentiment ; the mild joke becomes
stale by repetition. Then we have con-
stantly the same Death of the Blessed
Virgin, the Apostles assembled round the
bed ; and her Burial, where Peter releases
the impious Jew's hand, which had stuck
to the bier : surely the artist could draw
them all with his eyes shut ! But some-
times, and especially as aforesaid in the
' circle ' pattern, we come upon greater
freedom and a more individual invention,
and we hail the variety with relief.

In a former paper I said a few words
about the treatment of flesh in the Opus
Anglicanum ; the treatment of drapery and
of gold (the latter material always requir-
ing special handling) will now require our
attention. Both in silk and gold draperies,
but more especially in the use of gold, it
would seem as though the further back
one searches the more highly finished
and the more intelligent the work is found
to be. Certain precious scraps of early
gold-work, with which we are not con-
cerned here, show this in their accurately
delicate, almost fairy-like texture ; and, to
come to the subject immediately before
us, in comparing the silk draperies of the
Ascoli cope with those in needlework
only a hundred years
later, a quite startling
change is noted in the
quality of the technique,
so mechanical has the
stitch become.

Fig. i is a note of

some detail from the

FlG - '• Syon cope, a piece

which, as I have said before, is full of a

bold and charming convention, and there-

fore a clearly marked type of its time
and school. The system of working silk
drapery was this : The principal lines
being designed broadly and simply, the
folds were worked from a 'core,' as it
were, of the darkest colour, shading gra-
dually to the light general tone of the
drapery. And not so very gradually either,
for, having gone over every inch of this
piece, I find few figures which show
more than three shades — the dark core, a
middle, and a light shade. A little mix-
ing is sometimes done ; thus, the core may
be purple, the lines following round this
a full middle blue, and finally the filling
done with palest blue or toned white. A
practical worker will at once see the little
technical difficulties that occur in this bold
convention : the triangular bits that have
to be filled in, the lines in opposition that
have to be coaxed and softened, or left
frankly opposed. For all that, as in the
strange treatment of flesh, the freedom of
it is very pleasant and amusing, and gives
a certain vivacity to the texture, which is
rarely met with in the smooth and highly
finished work of the modern schools. In
this latter work the stitches usually present
a sort of simulation of tapestry — I mean in
so far as that they do not follow the lines of
the drapery, but are arranged as though
the textile were built up on vertical warp-
threads. Tapestry by its nature demands
this restraint ; embroidery revolts against
it, and the admirable artistic common-sense
of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth
centuries rejected such a simulation of a
different art in their embroideries. At
the same time it must be noted that the
grave simplicity of the Italian treatment
of drapery is really nearer the perfection
of interpretation in this art. As far as I
have had opportunity of close observation
of these far-scattered pieces I am inclined
to think that the finest of the English
work and the finest French (though here
one treads on uncertain ground) more

Opus Anglican urn— 'The 'Pienza Cope

nearly approach this breadth and sim-
plicity ; the convention is less strongly
marked, the individuality more insistent.
Notably is this the case in the Ascoli
cope.

The gold-work also presents interesting
peculiarities. Here again I am forced to
the somewhat ungracious contrasting of
the earlier treatment with the later, going,
it may be, no further on than the fifteenth
century. In some of the most delicious
and flowery pieces of fifteenth-century work
we find, when we come to personnages, that
the serious knowledge and accomplishment
is gone, though the naive figures have their
own charm of childlike clumsiness. Here
it is enough for the worker to pass the
golden threads backwards and forwards
across the figure, as the weaver throws the
shuttle, laying them down with minute
points of pale colour, or with strongly
marked drapery lines. This is always a
good straightforward method when simply
employed, but susceptible of much abuse,
as the still later times show. In the early
Opus Anglicanum, in the Syon cope, for
instance (which I take to show the simplest
rendering of gold-work at the time), the
gold is laid in zig-zags or chevrons, the
stitches themselves not showing, but pulled
through to the back, which is strengthened
by cords sewn with the work. 18 This
method, not confined to England, was a
happy invention ; it has really been the
means of preserving for us much magnifi-
cent, work that would else have vanished,
as the little silk points on ' surface-couched '
gold are susceptible to the least rubbing,
while the gold drawn through is so even on
its face that it will probably last as long as
the materials themselves will hold together.
So much for the plainer laying of gold ;

18 On this subject see De Farcy : La Broderie, etc. ; also a
photograph hanging on the case of the Syon cope at the Vic-
toria and Albert Museum, which shows the reverse of the work.

upon this surface the lines of drapery would
be traced in fine black or brown stitches.
A golden figure thus treated, so flat and
grey and exquisitely simple, has a strangely
diaphanous look, which is heightened, no
doubt, by the slender lines of dark.

But this simplicity had to be elaborated
sometimes, and in golden backgrounds we
get wonderful subtle cloud effects, rich
scroll and flower work, all sorts of dainty
fancies, wrought with the most sensitive
fingers, while in the draperies a curious
and original disposition of lines relieves the
simplicity presented by a breadth of chev-
roned gold. Fig. 2 is taken from the
Steeple Aston cope, which is a study of
gold-work. Here the
chevroned surface is
interrupted by broad
drapery lines, which
are represented by
the gold being stitch-
ed in a different direc-
tion. In this example
the gold is laid verti-
cally, but the stitches
which hold it down
are so placed as to give
an impression of slant-
ing lines ; a much pleasanter effect is
thus produced than if the verticality
were allowed to be insistent. These
broad indications of folds supplement the
few principal lines of fine black silk,
and the combination forms an interpreta-
tion of drapery design cleverly adapted to
the limitations of gold. The texture of
this early gold-work is indeed most beauti-
ful, and though of often miraculous minute-
ness, the sense of breadth and dignity is
never wanting. These artists had conquered
their material, entirely rejecting the me-
tallic glitter which puts all colour out of
scale.

Fig. 2.

ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO

J5T* BY HERBERT P. HORNE J9*

PART I-HIS EARLY LIFE

F the vast contribution
which Milanesi made to
the historical criticism of
Vasari, nothing, perhaps,
came as a greater dis-
covery, or carried with it
a keener sense of historical justice, than his
exposure of the legend of the murder of
Domenico Veneziano by Andrea dal Cas-
tagno. We now know that Vasari retold
the story in all good faith, as he had found
it recorded in the lost ' Libro di Antonio
Billi,' or in some kindred source ; and that
within fifty years of Andrea's death, a tissue
of falsehood touching his moral character
had been gradually evolved, which for
nearly four centuries served, in the view ot
nearly every writer upon Florentine art, to
distort his character as a painter. In the
commentary in which Milanesi exposed
this legend, he also adduced for the first
time, a series of notices relating to the
origin and early life of Andrea. This com-
mentary first appeared in 1862, and was
afterwards twice reprinted ; the second
time in the edition of Vasari, with which
Milanesi's name is chiefly associated. 1

In the course of this essay, Milanesi
states that ' Andrea dal Castagno, so-called
either because he had come into the world
in that obscure village of the Mugello '
(meaning San Martino a Castagno), 'or
because he had lived there as a child, was
the son of one Bartolommeo di Simone, a
peasant and the owner of a small property
in the popolo of Sant' Andrea a Linari, in
the contado of Florence. Andrea was born
about the year 1390, as he himself states
in his return to the Officials of the Taxes
in 1430. In that document he says,
among other things, that he was in great

1 In the ' Giornale Storico degli Archivi Toscani ' for 1862,
Gennajo-Marzo, p. 1 ; in the volume entitled, ' Sulla Storia dell'
Arte Toscana, Scritti varj,' Siena, 1873, p. 291 ; and in the edi-
tion of Vasari, published at Florence in 1878, by G. C Sansoni,
vol. ii, p. 683.

poverty ; that he had passed more than
four months of the year in sickness, be-
tween the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova
and that of the Pinzocheri ; that he pos-
sessed a small house and two parcels of
land in the popolo of Sant' Andrea a Linari;
and lastly, that he had neither house, nor
bed, nor household goods whatsoever, in
Florence, so that when he was ill he was
obliged to go into the hospital.'

I long felt a certain difficulty in recon-
ciling this statement with what we know
of the painter from other sources. If
Andrea dal Castagno was so called from
having been born, or from having passed
his youth, in the village of that name in
the Mugello, how did he, the son of a
peasant, come to possess property situated
on the other side of Tuscany ? Or, again, if
he were really born c. 1390, there is ex-
tant not the slightest notice of the first
forty-four years of his life ; nor does any
painting exist to which we might point
with any show of probability, as a work
executed by him during that period. The
earliest work by him, of which the date is
to be ascertained, was the lost frescoes of
the Albizzi conspirators, executed in 1434.

With the help of the indications given
by Milanesi in the footnotes to his com-
mentary, I have been able to trace the
original document on which he had
founded these assertions. The document
in question is a denunzia returned by one
Andrea di Bartolommeo to the officials of
the Catasto, and is contained in the Filza
of the year 1430, for the Gonfalone Scala,
in the Quarter of Santo Spirito in Florence. .
It states, much as Milanesi says, that this
Andrea possessed a small house and two
small pieces of vineyard, along the road-
side, in the popolo of Sant' Andrea a Linari,
in Val d'Elsa ; and also a piece of vine-
yard, with a piece of wooded land, and a

small house, in the popolo of San Paolo a
Ema, on the slopes of Monte Scalari, near
the source of that stream. The land at
Sant' Andrea a Linari was apparently cul-
tivated hy himself when in health, hut
that at San Paolo a Ema was farmed by
one Santi del Greggio, and yielded one
year with another, seven barrels of wine
and half an orcio of oil. This Andrea is
further stated to have been in great poverty,
and to have been recently sick for more
than four months in hospital. His taxes
were unpaid, he had debts to the amount
of seven gold florins odd, and possessed
neither house nor goods in Florence.
Lastly, he is said to have been ' forty
years of age, or more.' 2

This Denunzia, which from the wording
of its contents, is evidently not in the hand-
writing of the person who makes the re-
turn, is written on the first page of a folio
sheet ; the last page of which bears the
endorsement : —

' Andrea di Bartolommeo, called Barbanza

[taxed in the sum of] 3 soldi.
' Deposited by Bernardo di Ser Salvestro, on
the 29th day of January [1430-1] .'

This endorsement had apparently been
overlooked by Milanesi. On turning to
the official copy of this same Demorzia,
contained in the Campione for 1430, Gon-
falone Scala, we find it entered in the name
of ' Andrea dj Bartolomeo dt'c/o bur-
banza.' 3 The name alone might well make
us pause, and ask ourselves whether this
Andrea could really have been Andrea the
painter ? Nor is this all : the scribe adds
to the copy the significant comment of his
own 'pare chesiascimonito ' — ' he appears
to be a half-witted fellow.' Surely this
comment in itself is a sufficient proof that
this person here referred to cannot have
been the painter ? 4 There have been various
opinions as to the character of Andrea ;
but nobody has as yet suspected that he
was an idiot.

In an earlier Denunzia of the year 1 427,

» Doc. I. »Doc II. * Doc. III.

Andrea dal Castagno

returned in the same Gonfalone, the name

is again given as ' Andrea dj bartolomeo
detto burbanza.' And neither in this
Denunzia, nor in the two copies of that
of 1430, is there the slightest indica-
tion to show that this Andrea was the
same person as ' Andrea di Bartolommeo
di Simone, painter, of the popolo of Santa
Maria del Fiore,' (as Andrea dal Castagno is
described in the register of his matricula-
tion, in the Arte di Medici e Speziali,)
beyond the fact that his own name was
Andrea, and his father's, Bartolommeo.
But such a concatenation of names was by
no means an uncommon one at Florence,
in the fifteenth century. In the books of
the Catasto for the Quarter of San Gio-
vanni alone, (the quarter in which an in-
habitant of the popolo of Santa Maria del
Fiore would, in the ordinary course of
things, be inscribed,) I have come by
chance upon the names of ' Andrea di
Bartolomeo dimanno,' ' Andrea di Bartolo
vapettinando,' and ' Andrea di Bartolo detto
Tregenda ' ; all of whom were contem-
poraries of Andrea dal Castagno. 5

It is clear, that this Andrea di Bartolom-
meo, called 'Burbanza,' apparently from his
clownish ostentation of manner, was a half-
witted peasant, who hailed from the Val
d'Elsa, and a wholly different person from
Andrea, the painter, who, according to all
tradition, was born at II Castagno, in the
Mugello. In short, the account which
Milanesi gave of the early life of the master
was founded upon a misconception, and
must be dismissed, once and for all, to that
limbo to which the legend of his murder
of Domenico Veneziano has already been
consigned. Such a conclusion leads us to
reconsider the date of Andrea's birth, and
such notices of his early life as have come
down to us. Of the date of his birth, I
have hitherto been unable to discover any

' Firenze: R. Archiviodi Stato ; Arch, delle Decime, Cjuartiere
San Giovanni. Gonfalone Chiave, 1442, N° verde 626, fol. 94 and
fol. 39; Quartiere id. Gonfalone Leon d'Oro, 1427, N° verde 78,
fol. 206.

Andrea dal Castaqno

evidence. Vasari, our only authority on this
point, says that Andrea diedat the ageof7i ;
but then, by an extravagant error, he makes
him paint the effigies of the Pazzi con-
spirators, on the face of the Bargello, in
1478. Vasari, therefore, believed Andrea to
have been born subsequently to 1407. 6

As to the place of his origin, we know-
that during his lifetime the painter was
known as Andrea dal Castagno. His assis-
tant, Alesso Baldovinetti, in an entry in his
'Ricordi, Libro A,' of the year 1454, calls
him 'Andrea di Bartolo, da Castagno, di-
pintore'; and his patron, Giovanni Ruc-
cellai, who employed him upon the deco-
ration of his palace in the Via della Vigna
Nuova,at Florence, calls him, in his 'Zibal-
done,' begun in 1459 and continued down
to the time of his death in 1477, ' Andre-
ino dal Castagno, detto degli impichati.' 7
Here, then, we have two of Andrea's
contemporaries indirectly alluding to the
place or his origin. Before we turn to
Vasari, let us glance at the commentators
upon Florentine art, who preceded him.
Notices of the early life of Andrea have
comedown to us both in two partial copies,
or versions, of the lost ' Libro di Antonio
Billi,' and among the collections of the
' Anonimo Gaddiano.' In the Codice Petrei
the story runs thus : ' Andreino da Cas-
tagno, brought up from his boyhood in
Florence, was taken from keeping the flocks
by a Florentine master, who found him as
he was drawing a sheep on a stone, and
brought him to Florence.' Now this story,
as Herr Frey has pointed out, is plainly a
reminiscence of the earlier legend, that
Cimabue, passing one day through the
Mugello on his way to Bologna, found
Giotto as a boy ' drawing a sheep on a
stone.' If Andrea was really born in the
Mugello, it is easy to understand how this
legend became attached to him. According

6 Vasari, ed. 1568, vol. i, p. 399.

' G. Pierotti, 'Ricordi di Alesso Baldovinetti,' Lucca, 1868, p. 10.
G. Marcotti, ' Un Merchante Fiorentino e la sua Famiglia nel
secolo xv,' Firenze, 1881, pp. 67-68

to the version of the story contained in
the Codice Strozziano, Andrea was found
not by a Florentine painter, but ' by a citi-
zen.' 'The Anonimo Gaddiano,' in retell-
ing the story, does not particularize the
person. 8

Vasari, however, in the first edition of
the ' Lives,' gives a different and very cir-
cumstantial account of how Andrea became
a painter, which possesses on the face of it,
a far greater show of probability than these
earlier notices. Andrea, he relates, 'by
reason of his having been born not far from
Scarperia in the Mugello, in the contado of
Florence, at a little farm commonly called
II Castagno, took it for his surname, when
he came to live in the city, which hap-
pened on this wise. Having been left in
his early childhood without a father, he
was taken by an uncle of his, who kept him
many years to watch the herds, seeing him
ready and active and so formidable, that he
was able to keep from harm not only his
cattle, but the pastures and every other
thing which attached to his interest.
Following then this calling, it happened
one day that, in order to avoid the rain,
he took shelter by chance in a place,
where one of those country painters who
work at a small price, was painting the
tabernacle of a peasant, a matter, naturally,
of no great moment. Andrea, who had
never before seen the like, taken by a sudden
wonder, began to observe and consider
most attentively the nature of the work ;
and immediately, the greatest longing pos-
sessed him, and so passionate and eager a
love of that art, that without losing more
time, he began to scratch and draw on the
walls and stones in charcoal, or with the
point of his knife, animals and figures, in
such a manner that he aroused great astonish-
ment in those that saw them. The report
of this new study of Andrea's began to get
abroad among the peasants ; and as chance

8 C. Frey, ' II Libro di Antonio Billi,' Berlin, 1892, pp. 21-
22. C. Frey, ' II Codice Magliabechiano, cl. xvii. 17,' Berlin,
1892, p. 97.

would have it, having come to the ears of
a Florentine gentleman, called Bernardetto
de' Medici, whose estates lay there, he
formed the desire to know the boy ; and
at length having seen him, and heard him
talk with great readiness, he asked him if
he would like to follow the craft of a
painter. And Andrea having answered
him, that nothing more acceptable could
possibly happen to him, nor could any-
thing ever please him as much as that, he
carried him with him to Florence, and
placed him to work with one of those
masters, which were then held to be among
the best.'9

Let us now endeavour to test, in so far
as we may, the truth of this story of
Vasari's ; for unless we are able to credit
it, we must confess our entire ignorance of
all the circumstances of Andrea's early
life. Bernardetto de' Medici, who here
figures as the early patron of Andrea, be-
longed to an elder branch of the family
than the more illustrious one of Cosimo,
Pater Patriae ; both he and Cosimo being
descended in the fourth degree from Aver-
ardo di Averardo di Chiarissimo. 10

Bernadetto was born in i 395, according
to the ' Denunzia al Catasto,' which he
and his brothers returned in 1430. 11 He
took an active part all his life in public
affairs, and his name constantly occurs in
the pages of Florentine history, after his
relative, the great Cosimo, returned from
exile. In 1436 Bernadetto was elected to
the office of prior ; and in 1438 he was

» Vasari, ed. 1550, vol. i, p. 409.

10 P. Litta ; ' Famiglie Celebri Italiane,' Milano, 1819 n., Fam.
Medici. Tav. XVIII.

11 According to Litta, I.e., Bernadetto was born in 1393.

[The documents referred to will be printed

Andrea dal Castagno

sent into Lombardy as the 'commissario'
attached to Francesco Sforza, who com-
manded the Venetians, the allies of the
Florentines, in the war against the Duke of
Milan. In 1447 he was elected to the
supreme office of ' Gonfaloniere di Gius-
titia,' an honour which he again enjoyed
in 1455 ; and the occasions on which lie
acted, either as ' commissario ' of the
Florentine forces or as the ambassador of
the republic are too numerous to be men-
tioned. By his will, dated 1465, he founded
the chapel of San Bernardo, afterwards
commonlv called of Sant' Anna, in San
Lorenzo. He appears to have died shortly
after this. 12

According to the ' Denunzia' of Bernar-
detto, and his brothers, Giovenco and
Antonio, returned in the vear 1430, with
the exception of one small property in
Florence the whole of their joint estates
lav in the valley of the Mugello. They
are returned under eight heads, and in-
clude : ' vna chaxa di signiore,' or villa,
with its fiirmhouse and vineyard, together
with two 'poderi ' or firms in the parish
of San Piero a Sieve ; a house in the neigh-
bouring town of Scarperia ; and four other
properties, variously situated within the
commune of Scarperia. The villa of Ber-
nardetto is still a conspicuous object on the
rising ground above the little town of San
Piero a Sieve. 13

12 P. Litta, I.e. ; S. Ammirato: ' Istorie Florentine,' Firenze
1638-1641, Vol. III. p. 20, etc.

13 Firenze: R. Archivio di Stato : Arch. delleDecime; Quar-
tiere, San Giovanni; Gcnfalone, Leon d'Oro; Campione 1430,
No. verde407, fol. 297 tergo.

(To be continued.)

as an appendix to a future number.]

(-1

^* NOTES ON VARIOUS WORKS OF ARTJ9*

ON A FLORENTINE PICTURE OF THE
NATIVITY

Y the kind permission of its
owner, Mr. Stogden, of Har-
row, we publish on Plate I a re-
production of a large altarpiece
of the Florentine school. It is
in many ways a peculiar and
puzzling picture, about which
those connoisseurs who have
seen it have for the most part come to no definite
conclusion. Subject, composition, and treatment
are all unfamiliar in this picture. The Virgin
with the infant John the Baptist, surrounded by
St. Louis and two other saints, kneel in adora-
tion before the Infant Saviour, while on either
side appear the figures of the donor and his wife.
Just behind the donor is a figure that we may
suppose to be his son. The background is un-
usually large and full of incident; the ruined
stable at Bethlehem fills the centre ; to the left is
seen a free rendering of the Arno valley with
St. Christopher; to the right the execution of
St. Sebastian ; and at the end of a long, straight
alley the walls and towers of Florence. The town
is represented as seen from the north-east, and
the relative positions of the chief buildings, the
Palazzo Vecchio, the Duomo, the Campanile, the
Baptistery, and the tower of Sta. Maria Novella,
are truly rendered. It is certainly rare at this
period to find so literal and exact a representation
of the city.

Nothing is known of the history of the picture
which would lead to the identification either of the
artist, of the donor, or of the church for which it
was intended. We are therefore left to the in-
ternal evidences of style, and these are by no
means easy to read. The main influence is clearly
that of Baldovinetti. The grouping of the figures
and the treatment of the foreground with schematic
flowers painted upon a dark green ground remind
one of his Madonna enthroned in the Uffizi, while
the ruined stable with the elaborately displayed
ivy refers doubtless to his fresco in the courtyard
of the Annunziata. Vasari specially commends
the realistic drawing of the ivy in this composi-
tion. Baldovinettian, too, is the Arno valley,
with its dark tufts of foliage, its clear-cut cypress
forms; even the peculiar foliation of the tree
may be traced to the fresco by Baldovinetti
already referred to. Like Baldovinetti, again, are
the rounded outlines and compact poses of the
hands, and the blunt severity of drawing in the
portraits of the donor's family.

On the other hand, the draperies already show
an involution, a complication in the design of the
folds, which belongs to a later art than Baldo-
vinetti's; the Virgin's headdress in particular
points to the school of Verrocchio, and from
Verrocchio our artist may have learned to mark

the tendons on the back of the hand, as he has
done so conspicuously in the St. Anthony.

A certain non-Florentine influence also makes
itself apparent in the group of the execution of
St. Sebastian, where we are reminded of Signorelli.
But on the whole we find our artist to have
been one of Baldovinetti's pupils, who afterwards
migrated into Verrocchio's circle. Such a career
s not unknown : the as yet nameless painter of
the Madonna and Child with two angels in the
National Gallery, formerly ascribed to Verrocchio,
and now wisely labelled Florentine school, affords
an instance ; and our artist shows, with far less
accomplishment, a certain likeness to him. That
artist comes so near to Botticini that Mr. Beren-
son has actually ascribed to Botticini another
painting by him — the little Tobias of the National
Gallery.

The artist of our Nativity is certainly near to
Botticini, and it is not impossible that this might
be an early work of his. It has, indeed, a close
similarity with a Madonna adoring the Infant
Christ in the gallery at Modena, which may, per-
haps, be by Botticini. On the other hand, we do
not find elsewhere in Botticini such strong evi-
dence of Baldovinetti's influence.

I think, indeed, that it is more likely that our
artist may some day be identified as the author of
another picture of the Verrocchian school, the
much-disputed Madonna and Child — No. 104A of
the Berlin Gallery — there ascribed to Verrocchio
himself. This attribution was vigorously contested
by Morelli, who pointed out the vulgarity of the
drawing and the tastelessness of the design,
especially shown in the spiral convolution of the
headdress.

Precisely similar faults are to be found in Mr.
Stogden's picture, where the peculiar tendency to
involve the folds in meaningless spiral twists is
very noticeable. Even the drawing of the rocks
with parallel perpendicular grooves finds its
counterpart in the Berlin picture. It must be re-
membered, however, that there is a considerable
difference in date between the two paintings.
Mr. Stogden's work shows every sign of being an
early effort. It has the conscientious care, the
struggle to go to the utmost limits of his power,
which befit a young painter working on his
first large commission. He shows himself here as a
conscientious and well-trained craftsman, who has
a clumsy but determined grasp of structural form,
but who is singularly without taste or a sense of
beauty. Such an artist was doomed to decline in
proportion as he relied more and more on his own
resources, and it is not unlikely that this naive and
curious work is the best that he has left us.
There is nothing here to indicate that we have the
first humble utterance of a great master : the ut-
most one could expect of our artist later on would
be work on the level of a Botticini or a Sellajo.
For all that, the picture is not without the charm

- X

-7'

SOTES ON WORKS OF ART.
PLATE II. THE IMAGE OF PITY
BV AN UNKNOWN MASTER OF
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, IN
THE POSSESSION OF M. GRIVAC

of sincere work done at a time when the merest
craftsman had the gifts of expressive invention ;
moreover, its possible relationship with other
Florentine paintings of the period seems to justify
its being made known to connoisseurs.

Roger E. Fry.

THE IMAGE OF PITY BY AN UNKNOWN

MASTER OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

HE Image of Pity was one
of the subjects most fre-
quently represented during
the middle ages by sculptors,
painters, miniaturists, and
engravers. The earliest and
simplest examples that I have
met with date from the four-
teenth century, and reprc-
in an open tomb with
: outstretched showing the

standing

sent our Lord
his hands crossed
wounds, and with the crown of thorns on his head
and a cruciform nimbus. Then a little later, in
Florentine and Sienese pictures, the tomb is repre-
sented at the foot of the cross, and figures of the
Virgin Mother and Saint John are introduced
seated in the foreground at the corners of the
tomb, or standing at each end of it and supporting
the Saviour's arms ; the spear and the reed with
the sponge are occasionally added in the back-
ground. In the fifteenth century other symbols
of Christ's sufferings are introduced either in the
background or in the compartments of a border
enclosing the figures.

Another series of works generally known as Our
Lady of Pity picture the Virgin Mother seated at
the foot of the cross mourning over the body of
her Son laid on her lap, an arrangement which
never seems natural, and often impossible. The
unknown author of the beautiful painting 1 here
reproduced by the kind permission of its owner,
M. Grivau, of Connerre, has treated the subject
in a manner of which I know no other example,
and which strikes me as exceedingly happy. The
figure of Christ is noble, and that of His mother
full of tenderness and compassion. They stand
out well on the gold background, the brightness of
which is ably modified by the symbols of the
Passion scattered all around. Against the right
arm of the tau or Calvary cross are the spear and
reed with the sponge, and on the extreme right
of the panel the pillar with the cords, the scourge
of three thongs, a bunch of twigs, and at the top
the board with the title I.N. R.I. ; above it, the
bust of Judas with a rope round his neck, to which
his purse is attached ; higher up are the heads of
Peter and the maidservant face to face. In the
space between these and the central group are the
heads of Annas and Caiaphas, and three hands —
one an open right hand striking (St. John xviii.

1 Oak. H.o m . 28 ; B.o">. 206. See Plate II, page 74.

The Image of Pity

22) ; another, probably Judas grasping the purse.
I fail to see what the third is meant to represent.
On the left side are the heads of Pilate and
Herod, a closed right hand, the head of a man
mocking, a right hand holding the hair, a foot
kicking, and the three nails.

Nothing is known of the history of the picture
which is in all probability the work of a master of
the school of Tournay.

\V. H. James Weale.

ON A PAINTING BY ANTONIO
DA SOLARIO

'HEN, in an early number
of The Burlington-
Magazine, 1 I con-
tributed a note on a
picture of the Madonna
and Child, ascribed to
Andrea da Solario, and
then in the possession of
Mr. Asher Wertheimer, I called attention to the
evident genuineness of the signature, which runs
' Antonius da Solario Venet us f.' and, while admit ting
the extreme likeness of the picture to those painted
by the well-known Lombardo- Venetian painter,
Andrea da Solario, urged caution in rejecting on
purely internal evidence the testimony of a signa-
ture which bore every trace of authenticity. I also
agreed that, while the signature of a well-known
artist might, even if original, be legitimately sus-
pected, the temptation to have it affixed to a work
of art falsely, when the name was little or hardly
known, did not exist. The only Antonio Solario
known to art historians was one who painted at
Naples, and whose characteristics in no way
answered those of the author of the picture in
question. Mr. Berenson, in a reply to my article,' 2
declared his unshaken belief that the Madonna
and Child was by Andrea Solario. He proceeded
to explain the signature by supposing that Andrea
Solario left the cartellino blank, and that an
owner who bought it wished to record the name
of the artist and the fact that it was executed in
Venice ; but, having only a confused recollection
of the painter's Christian name, hit upon Antonio,
and had that inscribed on the cartellino. The
ingenuity of this theory certainly provokes one's
admiration, but I confess it scarcely brought con-
viction to my mind, willing as I was on internal
evidence to ascribe the picture to Andrea in spite
of certain slight differences in handling and manner
of conception which tended to confirm my doubts.
Now, however, these doubts have increased to a
practical certainty that another and hitherto un-
known artist, Antonio Solario, existed and painted
the Madonna and Child belonging to Mr. Wert-
heimer. For yet another picture has turned up

1 Vol. I, p. 353 (May 1903). Picture reproduced on p. 352.
' Burlington, Vol. II, p. 114 (June 1903).

On a Painting by Antonio da Solario

which bears his signature. It is the painting of
the Head of John the Baptist belonging to Mr.
Humphry Ward, and reproduced by his kind
permission on Plate I. It is signed antonius
solarius venetus MDVin. This time the
signature is in Roman capitals such as Andrea
used, and not in gothic script as in the Wertheimer
picture. The picture was done some time, perhaps
ten years, later than the Wertheimer Madonna,
and in the interval the two artists, at first so like,
are now visibly disparate. It so happens, indeed,
that an exact comparison between the two can be
made, for in this very year, 1508, Andrea da Solario
painted this very subject. His version of it is
now in the Louvre. It is decidedly superior
to our picture, and has just that energy and pre-
cision of touch which are so conspicuously lacking
in Antonio's rendering. Mr. Humphry Ward's
picture is indeed fine only in its accessories. The
pearl inlaid golden chalice which supports the
saint's head is painted with considerable skill, but
the head itself is weak and indeterminate in
modelling, and the attempt at pathos verges on
sentimental weakness. It serves to show, how-
ever, that our unknown artist followed in the
footsteps of his greater namesake, and having
learned his art from the Vivarini in Venice, became
a member of the Leonardesque Lombard school ;
of this the treatment of the hair and the attempted
sfumato of the flesh are sufficient proof. But,
though he followed in Andrea's footsteps as far as
style was concerned, his lesser talent caused him
to lag behind until, in the two pictures of 1508, the
superiority of Andrea is so manifest that no one
would think of attributing Mr. Humphry Ward's
picture to him.

Who this Antonio was that shadowed Andrea
Solario throughout his career still remains a ques-
tion to be solved, perhaps by some lucky find in the
archives of Milan. In the meanwhile it is natural
to conclude that he was Andrea's brother. It is
partly in the hope that it may lead to his further
identification that we give publicity to this curious
work. Roger E. Fry.

PORTRAIT OF A GIRL BY H. FANTIN-
LATOUR

The portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards by Fantin-
Latour in the National Gallery was reproduced in
The Burlington Magazine last month. In the
note upon it reference was made to a portrait in
Messrs. Obach's Exhibition. That portrait we
are now permitted to reproduce. 3

In itself it is not perhaps so important as several
other portraits by that master, yet it possesses an
interest of its own apart from its intrinsic charm.
Fantin started life as a realist under the shadow
of Courbet in company with painters like Ricard
Bonvin and Ribot. His early portrait groups are
5 Plate III, page 77.

all realistic. His aims are truth of lighting, truth
of 'space composition,' and truth of substance,
expressed by a technique founded on the old
Dutch masters. After a time Fantin began to
exhibit, side by side with these masterpieces of
severe fact, the masterpieces of delicate romance
by which in this country he is better known.

This study of a girl's head painted in the sixties
is a connecting link between these two phases.
It shows that even while Fantin was painting the
Hommage a Delacroix, and several years before
he produced the National Gallery portrait, he was
already turning his mind to the suave tender form
of art in which he was to prove himself the succes-
sor of Prudhon and Correggio.

OLD ENGLISH DRUG AND UNGUENT
POTS FOUND IN EXCAVATIONS IN
LONDON 4

OST students and collectors
of English earthe nware have
had their attention drawn to
a certain class of small en-
amelled earthenware vessels
I which are constantly being
discovered in various parts
_j3f London where excavations
are being made for the foundations of new buildings
or for drainage purposes. The small vessels were
no doubt used for containing drugs and ointments,
and as much discussion has been raised concern-
ing their provenance, the time appears to have
arrived when some attempt should be made to
come to a definite decision on this point.

Mr. Henry Wallis, in his latest work, ' The
Albarello,' boldly and unhesitatingly claims for
them an Italian origin, only questioning whether
they were imported as pottery or filled with cos-
metics or drugs. He further goes on to say : —
'The Italian writers on maiolica will smile when
they hear that these particular albarclli were
labelled in English museums and collections
"Lambeth Delft.'"

Let us now proceed to examine the grounds for
and against Mr. Wallis's verdict, arguing succes-
sively from the evidence of size, form, and deco-
ration. The first curious feature common to all
these drug-pots which are Italian in form is their
diminutive size ; very rarely do they exceed 3$ in.
in height. No. 25 of the pieces illustrated is one
of the few exceptions ; yet even this specimen,
although very much larger than any of its class
known to the writer, is still a great deal smaller
than the ordinary Italian albarello, which averages
at least from 7 in. to 8 in ; occasionally specimens
are met with measuring only 5^ in., but vases of the
small dimensions of those which are comparatively
common in London are never found in Italy.
This is a very strong point, for if they had been,
* See Plate IV, page 80.

PLATE III. POKTKA1T BY H. FANTIN-!

-ft

2 H. 4} IN.

iTM*

*•<***»**<

4 5

FROM THE GUILDHALL MUSEUM

t> H. 5i IN.

i,;

24 -25 H. .(J IN. 26

PECniENS P LLV FROM MR. HILTON PRICE'S COLLECTION LENT TO THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUH

19
2D
21

PLATE IV. OLD ENGLISH DRUG
AND UNGUENT POTS EXCAVATED
IN LONDON

Old English Drug and Unguent Pots

made in Italy for export it is almost absolutely
certain that some would have remained in that
country ; but we find no trace either of complete
vessels, wasters, or fragments.

The next points for consideration are their form
and decoration. No student of English delft-ware
is ignorant of the fact that the English potters
were well acquainted with the products of their
foreign rivals ; owing, as they did, the knowledge
of this particular branch of their handicraft to the
teaching of workmen from abroad, it would have
been a most extraordinary circumstance if the
early English delft did not bear a very strong
resemblance to the models from which the potters
borrowed their ideas. The well-known Ann
Chapman mug in the Victoria and Albert Museum
and other examples in the British Museum show
how very strongly the Lambeth decorators were
influenced by the designs on Italian maiolica.
Bearing in mind this habitual use of Italian and
other foreign decoration by the London potters, it
is quite obvious that the English craftsman would
not limit his borrowing propensities to the decora-
tion alone, but would certainly adopt ideas of form
from his competitors ; for we must recollect that
in the early days of English delft the native fac-
tories were carrying on a keen competition for the
home market with goods imported from the Con-
tinent, and the familiar Italian albarello had been
for centuries the accepted form for a pharmacy
jar, a shape which was not originated in Italy,
but borrowed by that country from the Hispano-
Moresque lustre-ware, whose makers in their turn
had adopted it from the East. Another peculiarity
of the small London jars is the bevelled edge of
the rim, which in the Italian examples is almost
invariably flat ; they would seem to have been
made thus to facilitate tying a parchment cover
over the mouth to preserve the contents. The
general outline of the form is also somewhat
clumsy as compared with the Italian, and the
walls very much thicker in proportion to the
height. Yet another interesting feature is the for-
mation of the base, usually much more hollowed
out underneath in the London pots than in the
Italian, which have an almost perfectly flat
bottom. An interesting proof of the albarello form
being known and copied in this country during
the Tudor period, long before the introduction
of enamelled wares, are the two green-glazed
albarello-shzped vases in the British Museum,
one of which, found in London, is figured in
Mr. Wallis's book and admitted by him to be
probably of English origin.

We have so far shown that the mere partial
coincidence in form is no evidence for the theory
of an Italian origin for our little London drug-
pots. It remains, therefore, for us to consider the
motifs of the decoration, upon which, indeed, the
whole of Mr. Wallis's case rests, and it must be
admitted that these motifs have a decidedly Italian

character, many of them being probably, in the
first instance, copied directly from an Italian
albarello.

Now let us turn to our illustrations ; the first
point which strikes us is the fact that the vessels
on the two plates consist, roughly, of two shapes,
namely, the jars of the familiar Italian albarello
form, and the remainder of a low and somewhat
squat pattern. Now this latter form (cf. Nos. I,
2, 3) is one quite unknown in Italy; we never see
it in earthenware or in any other material, a form
so wanting in artistic grace being hardly likely
even to suggest itself to an Italian mind. On the
other hand, it is quite a common shape in Eng-
land ; decorated and undecorated, it occurs in
glazed and unglazed earthenware, in Fulham
stoneware and in delft-ware. Now if we compare
the albarello-shaped vases with the squat-shaped
specimens it will be noticed that there is no
decoration on the former that is not also shown
on the latter, and also that both shapes have the
bevelled rims and the bases hollowed out under-
neath ; these coincidences justify us in accepting
the probability that the same hands made and
painted both shapes.

The next step is to analyse the decoration.

The feature common to all the painted pots is
the prevalence of a series of horizontal bands.
It is true that these bands are also found on
Italian jars ; but on these they merely serve to
separate the various schemes of ornament and to
emphasize the outline of the form of the vessel,
whereas on the London pots they form in many
cases the principal if not the sole decoration. 2
Another noticeable feature is the frequent use of
rows of small discs. These discs, when used on
Italian jars, are almost invariably accompanied
by some other small ornament, such as a trefoil
or a little wavy line, very rarely indeed are they
left by themselves. On English vessels, however,
they have always been used as a leading motif,
both on slip-decorated and on painted wares
(cf. No. 16).

We may now turn our attention to the vase in
our illustrations which has the most marked
Italian features, namely No. 25. We see here
again the same combination of blue bands and
discs which decorates the squat-shaped pots (Nos.
2, 9, 11, 13), and we find the same ornament
between the chevrons as on the vessels, Nos. 3
and 5 ; only one single feature remains which is
not depicted on both shapes in our illustrations,
namely the curved outline of the chevrons, which
is, after all, a very obvious variation from the
common straight form (cf. Nos. 2, 5). The little
devices between the chevrons are not so Italian

■ Amongst Mr. Wallis's drawings ('The Albarello,' fig. 93, p. 99)
a vessel copied from a painting by Ghirlandajo appears in this
respect to resemble the English examples, but a careful examina-
tion of a photograph of this picture reveals the fact that other
more elaborate decoration, not shown in the drawing, gives quite
a different character to the design.

Old English Drug and Unguent Pots

as at first sight they appear to be 3 ; for whereas
on the English vessels they consist simply of
superimposed straight lines, on the albarclli they
are usually painted in one continuous serpentine
line, a device never seen on a London pot.

On No. 24 the little conventional flower, cer-
tainly of Italian origin, is again seen as a feature
of the little English-shaped vessel (No. 12), and it
also forms the principal decoration of a little
ointment-pot in the Liverpool Museum, similar in
shape to No. 16. Numerous examples of this
shape are also to be seen in the Guildhall Museum,
inscribed with the names of English apothecaries
and English ointments.

A fine specimen of the squat-shaped type, of
unimpeachable Lambeth origin, in the writer's
collection, is particularly interesting, as it is deco-
rated in blue with a combination of the chevrons,
bands, and discs, thus showing that this style of
ornament was being used on English vessels in the
seventeenth century, a date at least one hundred
years later than that to which Mr. Wallis would
assign them.

The evidence thus appears to point very clearly
against Mr. Wallis's theory of an Italian origin for
these pots, and to give every justification for
collectors to continue to label them ' English
Delft,' although not necessarily Lambeth. The
shape has been shown to be familiar to the Eng-
lish potters, and all the motifs of the decoration to
be commonly used by them. We can therefore

8 In this connexion it may be pointed out that in Mr. Wallis's
drawings (' The Albarello,' figs. 60, 61, 62) the devices in question
hardly give a correct impression of their nature ; they appear
there as leaf-shaped designs drawn in outline and hatched in ; as
will be clearly seen in the photographs (PI. I, figs. 15, 16, 17),
they consist of a series of broad brush strokes placed horizontally
to form a pyramid.

adopt the only reasonable conclusion, which is
that they were made somewhere near where they
are most usually found, namely, in London, and
not where no traces of them ever occur, that is to
say, in Italy. C. H. Wylde.

MR. GEORGE SALTING'S CHINESE
PORCELAIN FIGURES IN THE VICTORIA
AND ALBERT MUSEUM
In the description of these fine figures, which are
so well illustrated in the last number of the
Magazine, I am kindly referred to as having
suggested the identification of Fig. 2 in Plate I
with Maitreya Buddha, and would like to be
allowed to add a note of explanation. He would
be posed here, I am inclined to think, as a member
of the group of eighteen Arhats (' Lohan '), not as
an isolated figure. Although Maitreya is never
seen among the sixteen arhats of Japan or Korea,
nor in the group of sixteen sthaviras of Tibetan
shrines, he is often found represented in the ranks
of eighteen Lohan which line the eastern and
western walls of a Chinese Buddhist temple (cf.
J. Watters's article on the eighteen Lohan in the
R. Asiatic Soc. Jour., April 1898). He may either
be, as here, enthroned in the Tushita heaven, or
figured as Putai Hoshang, the ' Monk with the
Hempen Bag.' Putai, transliterated Hotei in
Japanese, the well-known smiling obese figure of a
monk with a rosary in his hand, is supposed to be
the last incarnation on earth of the future Buddha.
In a finely carved ivory hand-rest illustrated in
the museum handbook of Chinese art (Vol. I,
Fig. 78), Maitreya is also included in the glyptic
group of eighteen Lohan, seated aloft upon a throne
upheld by three demons. S. W. Bushell.

J9* LETTERS TO THE EDITORS J5T*

THE VAN EYCKS AND M. BOUCHOT
Gentlemen,

M. Bouchot in his letter in the March
number of The Burlington Magazine (Vol. VI,
p. 497), instead of retracting or accounting for the
mis-statements which he put forth in the Bulletin
de VArt Ancien et Modeme of December 24, has
indulged in accusations of want of politeness on
my part, accompanied by fresh mis-statements.
He seems to think that my letters were an answer
to his recently published volume on the French
' Primitifs.' He is quite mistaken. I had not
even heard of the book until February 18, when
I at once ordered it of my bookseller. On the very
first page I find the astounding statement that
French was in the middle ages the language
spoken by the people of Ghent and Bruges.
Yet history tells us that on May 25, 1302 the
burghers of Bruges rose against their tyrannical
foreign rulers, and that every Frenchman who
could not pronounce correctly the words Schilt
ende vriendt was put to death. The communal

and parochial accounts and all business docu-
ments in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
thousands of which are preserved in the archives,
are drawn up in Flemish. But that your readers
may judge for themselves and form a fair estimate
of the value of M. Bouchot's most positive state-
ments I will now lay before them a few specimens
of the innumerable mis-statements in that volume,
with the real facts in parallel columns.

M. BoncHOT's Assertions.

The real Facts.

1. Van Eyck is a modem 1. Philip, duke of Burgundy,

translation of de Eyck, the in a letter dated 12 March,
ancient form everywhere em- 1434, writes thus : Notre bien
ployed in the fifteenth century. 1 am6 varlet de chambre et

peintre Jehan van Eyck} The
form Van Eyck occurs in three
other French documents of the
years 1434, 1439, and 1441, and
in a number of Latin docu-
ments 3 ; it is exclusively used
in Flemish documents.

1 Bulletin de V Art, vi, 319.

3 Archives of the Department of the North, Lille.
3 I have given references to these, and to works in which they
are printed, in the Bulletin, vii, 29.

The Van Eycks and M. "Bouchot

2. It will be as well to re-
mind our readers that James
Cone 4 was both architect and
painter, that the people of
Milan sent for him from France
to design the flan of their cathe-
dral, to build it, and finally to
decorate it with paintings.*

3. When we first meet with
Van Eyck he is at Cambrai
decorating a Paschal candle.
A forger of our own time in-
scribed with bitumen of Judea
on a picture of the consecra-
tion of St. Thomas a Becket,
' Johannes de Eyck fecit ano
M cccc 21 Octobris ' ; 1421
written in this manner is in it-
self a poem, but the inscrip-
tion really runs thus: 1400,
21 Octobris, and this is better.
John de Eyck was then a babe
in his cradle, but forgers do
not think of everything. Bitu-
men of Judea only came into
use in 1804. '

2. The plan of Milan cathe-
dral was made in 1356 and the
work commenced on the iSth
of March of that year. James
Coene did not arrive in Milan
until the 7th of August, 1399;
it was through French influ-
ence that he was invited thither
with two assistants and engaged
to make drawings of the cathe-
dral ; they were, however, very
soon dismissed ;eranofresto con-
gcdati.'

3. In the household accounts
of John of Bavaria we find
that John van Eyck was en-
gaged in decorating the Palace
at the Hague at a weekly wage
from October 25, 1422, until
September, 1424. In the ac-
counts of the fabric of Cam-
brai cathedral we find that a
certain John de Yeke was em-
ployed in 1422, 1423, 1424, and
following years, in painting
candles and clocks and crosses
on the outer wall of the cathe-
dral to prevent the commission
of nuisances. 8

A panel in the possession of
the duke of Devonshire bears
the perfectly authentic inscrip-
tion : JOHES DE EYCK FECIT

ano Mxccczr. 3o = octobris.
The panel, with the excep-
tion of this inscription, has
unfortunately been entirely
overpainted. It is said to have
been given in Van Eyck's life-
time by the duke of Bedford to
his nephew, Henry V. It was
in the possession of the earl
of Arundel ; on his death in
1646 it passed to Henry, duke
of Norfolk, and later on was
purchased by the duke of De-
vonshire. The inscription was
copied and published by Wal-
pole in 1762 and by Raspe in
178 1.

4. Any inscription can be
made to appear incomprehen-
sible if incorrectly copied as in
this case by M. Bouchot, who
insinuates that it is a forgery.

5. This is quite untrue. M.
Bouchot knows perfectly well
that in Flanders the painters
and saddlers were members of
the same gild, and he asserts
that it was to such gilds that
the really great masters be-
longed, and not to those in
which they were associated
with sculptors and gold-
smiths. 11

* I have (p. 413) said enough about the orthography and
meaning of the name Coene, and I think my word as a member
of the Royal Flemish Academy will be generally accepted.

• Les ' Primitifs,' pp. 19, 223.

6 ' Designare ecclesiam a fundamento usque ad summitatem.'
■ Annalis della fabrica del Duomo di Milano, ann. 1399 e 1400.'
M. Bouchot's statement (p. 19) that Coene returned to Paris be-
cause he liked that town better than Milan is really amusing.

7 Les ' Primitifs,' pp. 235, 238.

8 These have been repeatedly printed in works which M. Bou-
chot professes to have read.

' Les ' Primitifs,' p. 229.

10 Les " Primitifs,' p. 14.

11 Les ' Primitifs,' pp. 48, 49, 69.

4. The last line (of the in-
scription on the frame of the
Ghent altarpiece) is incompre-
hensible, 9

5. In the two Flanders the
painters formed part of the
gild of dealers in old clothes. 10

After these specimens our readers will probably
not be astonished to learn that in M. Bouchot's
opinion there is not a single picture for which
there is the slightest evidence of its having been
painted by either of the Van Eycks (pp. 25, 26) ;
that the Richmond, Rothschild, and Hermannstadt
pictures, the Louvre Madonna with the ' pre-
tended portrait of chancellor Rolin/and the Paele
altarpiece at Bruges are not by either of them
(pp. 240, 241) ; that the inscription on the last
(corroborated by a contemporary entry in the acts
of the chapter of St. Donatian) is a forgery (pp.
221-223), as a l so triat on the National Gallery
portrait, which does not represent Arnolfini, but
some Fleming, probably John van Eyck himself
(p. 239) ; (this last idea, by the way, is not original,
but borrowed from Laborde) and finally that the
Van Eycks never invented nor improved anything.

We should like to know how M. Bouchot
accounts for the fact that paintings by the
Van Eycks and their followers were in great de-
mand during the fifteenth century not only in the
Netherlands, but also in France, Italy, Sicily,
Spain, Portugal, England and Scotland, while
there is not the slightest evidence of any such
demand for French paintings. The real truth is
that the pictures produced in France in the fif-
teenth century were really executed by or under
the influence of Netherlanders, and that it was
mainly by Netherlanders such as the Clouets,
Cornelius Van der Capelle, Pourbus, and Watteau
that the art of painting was kept alive.

M. Bouchot must have a very poor opinion of
his countrymen if he thinks that they will swallow
these appeals to national vanity. The learned and
intelligent will only laugh at assertions generally
put forth without the shadow of a proof.

We have felt it our duty to write thus at length
to put our readers on their guard. We have been
so long accustomed to erudition, sound criticism,
and accuracy in works published by officers of
the Bibliotheque Nationale that we greatly regret
the issue of such a book as this.

W. H. J. Weale.

THE PORTRAIT OF ISABELLA BRANT

IN THE HERMITAGE

Gentlemen,

I have studied Mr. Max Rooses' admirable
and learned letter on this picture with the greatest
interest, and it would give me the greatest pos-
sible pleasure to agree with him. I recognize his
authority in the handling of the documents con-
cerning its antecedents, yet even there I am
inclined to disagree with the conclusions he has
drawn from them, or to dismiss the tradition that
Van Dyck painted Isabella Brant because such a
picture did not occur in the inventory of Rubens'
possessions after death. There might have been
several reasons to account for its absence when we

The Portrait of Isabella 'Brant

realize his ' widowerhood ' and his second mar-
riage, circumstances under which a portrait of the
first wife might drift into the hands of relatives —
but we are in these matters in the field of
conjecture.

The proof of the authorship of the picture
should be found in the technical characteristics
which it presents, and had it not passed (possibly
on some tradition) as the work of Van Dyck when
it was formerly in the Crozat collection, its style,
in my opinion, would be sufficient to invalidate
it? subsequent attribution to Rubens by the autho-
rities of the St. Petersburg Gallery ; in this I am
glad to find myself at one with so eminent and
successful a judge of painting as Dr. Bode. Be-
sides his scholarly interpretation of documents
and tradition, Mr. Kooses adduces several stylistic
reasons for discarding Van Dyck's authorship of
this masterpiece. He states that the portrait
represents the sitter (' at home ' as it were) in the
courtyard near the Wapper, and that in so doing
the artist has conformed to a habit of design
common to Rubens but not to Van Dyck. This,
I feel, exaggerates the case, for surely the mere
vista beyond the pillar and curtain is far from
representing those more ample and realistic cir-
cumstances affected by Rubens in such works as
' Lipsius and Friends' in the Pitti, the Lady
Arundel (Munich), and the admirable portraits of
Helene Fourment, mentioned by Mr. Rooses.
But do not let us forget that the picture at the
Hermitage is also less ample in its circumstances
than several typical works by Van Dyck repre-
senting sitters ' at home ' both early and late,
such as the Nobleman with two Attendants, for-
merly called Rubens and a Sculptor (National
Gallery), the Puito Bianco (Genoa), the famous
Charles and Henrietta, etc., with the vista of
Windsor Castle, and the Strafford and his Secre-
tary (Earl Fitzwilliam), to mention only a few
pictures by Van Dyck which depart from his more
restricted and habitual pattern for portraits with
the curtain and vista or arch and landscape.

The Hermitage picture is therefore quite as
much in the scheme of one master as of the
other ; it presents also several characteristics
which give the balance of evidence in favour of
Van Dyck. The contour of the face is sharper,
the scheme of form less rounded, more abrupt,
more ' clean ' than is the case with Rubens. The
sweeping line of the arm terminating in a long,
tapering hand is in the manner of the pupil;
Rubens poses his hands differently, he parts and
curves the fingers.

Finally, the technique reveals throughout the
sharper accent, the tendency to emphasize the
high lights with a more ' written ' impasto, and
this is typical of Van Dyck's early manner, and
is not like the practice of Rubens, whose touch is
more smooth and broken.

Mr. Rooses considers the superb drawing of

Isabella in the British Museum a preparatory
sketch for the Hermitage picture. This must be
a slip of memory, for it is reproduced in his book,
and though he allows that the view represented is
slightly more full face, he omits to state that it is
turned the other way, and that it corresponds in
every essential of form and pose to the portrait of
Isabella Brant in the Uffizi, which is one of
Rubens' masterpieces, for which it is obviously a
preparatory study.

In conclusion we should not be surprised if we
find in the pictures a survival of the teaching of
Rubens in the young Van Dyck, but the presence
of a body of characteristics belonging to the
younger man is improbable in a mature work of
the master. Charles Ricketts.

'ALBERT DURER*
Gentlemen,

Allow me to call attention to an oversight
on page 303 of 'Albert Durer,' recently published
by Messrs. Duckworth and Co., where it is stated
that the 'admirable translations' in Sir Martin
Conway's ' Literary Remains of Albrecht Durer '
were made by Miss Eckenstein. They were really
made by Sir Martin himself; Miss Eckenstein
only did the transcripts from the MSS. printed in
the Appendices, as is clearly stated in the preface
of that work. T. Sturge Moore.

THE ASCOLI COPE
Gentlemen,

As the interesting article by Miss May Morris
on the Ascoli cope, in the last (March) number of
The Burlington Magazine, is likely to be
referred to as the most authoritative account of
its design and workmanship, it may be worth
while to point out that the sixth subject in the
first row does not represent the martyrdom of
St. Cornelius, but that of St. Stephen. The
name Sus stephanms may be distinguished (in
the uppermost lobe of the medallion) even in a
large photograph, although M. Bertaux, in his
article in the Melanges d'ArchSologie, 1897, states
that ' on distingue seulement les quatres dernieres
lettres de son nom — [S. Corne] lius.' l The repre-
sentation of his martyrdom is exactly in accord-
ance with his legend as given, for example, in
Petrus de Natalibus, De sancto Stephano papa prima
et martyre. ' Valerianus milites ... ad eum
occidendum misit : qui venientes ipsum celebran-
tem missam invenerunt : et stantem intrepidum
accepta jugiter perficientem in sua sede decolla-
verunt.'

It may also be of interest to note, with regard
to the origin cf the cope, that when M. Bertaux
pronounces so decidedly in favour of the design

1 M. Bertaux also pronounces that, in the first medallion of
the same row, ■ l'inscription a disparu avec la bordure : ce pape
peut etre Saint Alexandre.' But the name Sus iohannes may be
made out even in the plate that accompanies Miss Morris's
article, in which this name is, of course, correctly stated.

being French, he is discussing the alternative of
its being Byzantine or Italian, and the idea of its
being English is not brought under consideration
at all. Eric Maclagan.

FRANCHISE DUPARC

Gentlemen,

To the very interesting article on Francoise
Duparc, of Marseilles, by M. Philippe Auquier, in
the March number of The Burlington Magazine,
you add a footnote to the effect that you have
been unable to find any evidence that this artist
ever lived in England.

There are, however, two entries in Mr. Algernon
Graves's ' Dictionary of Artists who have exhibited
works in the principal London Exhibitions from
1760 to 1893,' which, I believe, refer to her. A
' Mrs. Dupart ' exhibited three pictures (figures)
with the Free Society in 1763, and a ' — Du
Pare ' exhibited three portraits with the Society
of Artists in 1766.

Francoise Duparc

Mr. Graves has kindly given me a few more par-
ticulars, taken from his manuscript lists, from which
it appears that Mrs. Dupart's address was ' at Mr.
Gosset's, Berwick Street,' and that she exhibited
(1763) No. 69, An Old Woman; No. 70, A
Young Woman ; and No 71, A Black Boy with
a Basket of Flowers. Three years later (1766),
— Du Pare, 'at Mr. Williamson's, Prince's Street,'
exhibited No. 112, Portrait of a Lady; No. 113,
Portrait of a Gentleman; and No. 114, Portrait
of a Child — all three in crayons. I think it very
probable that in each of these instances the exhibi-
tor was Franchise Duparc.

Arthur B. Chamberlain,
Assistant-Keeper of the City of Birmingham
Art Gallery.

[%* This information is most interesting, and
we hope that English owners of eighteenth century
pictures will, as M. Auquier suggested, send par-
ticulars of any picture in their possession that may
possibly be a work of Francoise Duparc]

J»» BIBLIOGRAPHY ^

Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of
Chinese Porcelains. Privately printed by
order of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. New York,
mcmiv. (Limited to 250 copies.)

This sumptuous volume, beautifully printed on
thick hand-made paper with deckle edges, richly
bound in covers and fly-leaves of dark green
morocco, cleverly tooled with gold, and lined with
watered silk of harmonizing tint, and copiously
illustrated with seventy-seven lithographic coloured
plates, is a catalogue worthy of a collection of
Chinese porcelain which bids fair presently to
rival, if not to surpass, any of the older collec-
tions in Europe. The nucleus of the collection
consists of the select array of specimens brought
together by the late James A. Garland, of which
a small handbook, illustrated with half-tone blocks,
was compiled by John Getz, and published by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art at New York in 1895.
The present catalogue reveals many important
additions to the old nucleus ; and at the same time
records a striking advance in exact knowledge of the
subject, due mainly to recent studies in Chinese
ceramic literature, which are generously referred
to in the text.

For the appreciative and comprehensive notes,
printed as an introduction to the formal catalogue
and signed 'W. M. L.', we are indebted, there is
reason to believe, to Mr. Laffan, the eminent critic of
Chinese ceramic art. He describes with a trenchant
pen how all the superb pieces characterized in the
former handbook as ' examples of the high technical
skill attained during the Ming dynasty, in the fif-
teenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries,' ought
properly to be attributed to the reign of K'ang-hsi
of the reigning dynasty, and how this last is really

the halcyon period of the ceramic art in China: —
' Modern research and study have dispelled many
of the illusions and trade traditions that obscured
the whole history of Chinese porcelains. In fact,
at the end of the nineteenth century it has been
found necessary to adopt an entirely different
classification. In all the European collections
where there has been any systematic attempt at
classification, the most important of the decorated
porcelains and the best of the monochromes were
ascribed to the dynasty of the Mings, that is to
say, they must have been made in or prior to the
reign of Wan-li, the Ming emperor with whom
the industry perished in the Tartar invasion. All
the important blue and white pieces were parcelled
out as far back as the Emperor Yung-lo (1403-
1424), with a distinct partiality for Ch'eng-hua
(1465-1487), and a leaning towards Hsuan-te (1426-
1435). The fine rare reds, the sang de bceit/s, were
all Ming pieces, and by a curious fatuity were
called Lang-yao ; a family of potters named Lang
being created spontaneously for them. These last
were really K'ang-hsi porcelains (1662-1722), and
were Lang pieces in good faith, having been pro-
duced at King-te-chen under the prefecture of the
great Lang, who gave so wonderful an impetus to
the art under the protection of the peaceful Tartar
monarch. The black pieces, the so-called haw-
thorns, with varied decorations supported on a
black ground, were all relegated to the dynasty of
the Mings, and it is only at the beginning of the
twentieth century that we are able definitely to
dispel all these errors and straighten out in some
degree the sadly involved chronology of Chinese
porcelain.'

The above conclusions are hardly to be gain-
said, but a word of deprecation must be hazarded

Bibliography

on the constant use of the term ' hawthorn ' in
the catalogue. It is applied here not only to the
familiar blue and white ginger jars which are well
represented in the- collection — notably by the bril-
liant ' Blenheim vase ' from the Marlborough col-
lection figured in Plate XI — but also, still less
appropriately, to the stately K'ang-hsi vases of
varied form decorated in colours with floral designs
relieved by enamelled grounds of lustrous black,
bright apple-green, or softer yellow. The so-called
hawthorn is actually the early-blossoming wild
plum, the Chinese floral emblem of winter, which
is a species of prunus, allied to the blackthorn of
our hedges, that flowers in the valleys of northern
China before the ice melts. Neither, by the same
token, should sprays of white magnolia reserved
on a background of pulsating blue ever be called
' tiger lilies ' ; nor, still less, should trellised vines
of the pilgrim's gourd, another favourite floral
motive, become known to china-maniacs as the
' hop decoration,' the hop not being cultivated
anywhere in China.

The Morgan collection is especially strong in the
superbly-decorated porcelain of the K'ang-hsi
period in all its branches. A large black-ground
vase of almost unique interest is displayed in Plate
LIV, with the petals of the primus blossoms
effectively touched with coral red, while a tiny
spray of the same flower is painted within a circle
underneath in lieu of ' mark.' There are several
examples in which the blue, always a difficult
colour to reproduce, is unusually well rendered in
its many varied shades, and Plate XIII may be
instanced as a realistic representation of a large
ovoid jar with cover, of the K'ang-hsi period,
painted under the glaze in graded blues. The
attractive series of powder-blue grounds is well
represented here by garnitures of vases, plain,
heightened by pencilling of gold, or interrupted
by foliated panels, which are either painted under
the glaze with cobalt blue, or decorated over the
white glaze with enamel colours. The earliest mark
in the catalogue, with the exception of those stig-
matized as ' apocryphal,' is that of the reign of
Chia-ching (1522-1566) ; the latest mark is that
of the reign of Chia-ch'ing (1796-1820), repre-
sented by a striking set of three vases (Plate XXII),
the productions evidently of the imperial manu-
factory of the period, with finely chiselled casings
of pierced open-work, parcel-gilt in panels, sepa-
rated by diapered bands of soft enamel colours
touched with gold encircling the vases.

In the series of blue and white some character-
istic early pieces of the reigns of Chia-ching and
Wan-li of the Ming dynasty are illustrated in
appropriate tints. On the other hand no sym-
pathy is evinced by Mr. Morgan for the pretended
pate tendre variety which has lately had such vogue
in America, so that only one specimen of this
'illusory "soft paste" of the dealers ' is figured
in this volume (Plate XVII). A word of attention

may be directed by the way to a row of spherical
bottles shown in Plate VIII, decorated in brilliant
cobalt, which are supposed to be old Chinese
copies of delft, and are marked with a mis-shapen
D underneath, which is plausibly presumed to
suggest the locality of the original model. The
pieces illustrated in the catalogue all belong to
the decorated class of Chinese porcelain, with a
solitary exception in the case of the remarkable
Wan-li vase with dragon handles of archaic form
projecting from its slender neck, which is figured
in Plate LXI. This is invested with a mono-
chrome glaze of brilliant iridescent green, brushed
over the white glaze as a wash, so as to leave
underneath the spreading lip a reserve containing
the six-character mark of the period, previously
pencilled horizontally in under-glaze blue. An
elaborate design of dragons, birds, and flowers
incised in the paste under the glaze is described
as appearing like gold when seen in sunlight. It
is an old piece, and yet a survival of older methods
of toning single glazes by modifying their depth, the
body being tooled with a graver, or modelled with
patterns in sinuous relief, before the application
of the glaze.

The illustrations are chromo-lithographs, and
are finished examples of a craft which has been
highly cultivated in the United States. The
colours of the original schemes of decoration are
generally harmoniously reproduced and provided
with effectively tinted backgrounds ; the fine gold
is carefully toned after its original quality, although
it occasionally isolates itself almost too brilliantly
in the midst of the enamel colours in the picture.
Chinese porcelain has always attracted artists,
such as Jules Jacquemart, the prince of etchers,
and Whistler, who has conveyed with the free
stroke of his brush the very touch and spirit of
the Chinese ceramic craftsman working in blue.
It must be confessed that the three-colour process
adopted by Cosmo Monkhouse in his 'Chinese
Porcelain ' and by Mr. Dillon in his more recent
scholarly 'Porcelain,' appeals to me individually
as giving a touch of actuality hitherto wanting.
However, Cosmo Monkhouse has described Mr.
Louis Prang's chromo-lithographs of the Walters
collection at Baltimore as ' almost perfect,' and
one is inclined to apply the same epithet to the
charming pictures before us, the smaller scale of
which seems to give additional delicacy and refine-
ment.

The title-page bears the imprint of the Grier
Cooke press which has issued so many treasures
for book lovers in America. Each page of the
book is watermarked RG C, the plates are printed
on paper coated on one side, but corresponding in
texture and colour to the paper at the back, and
in short the perfect finish of every detail, under
the personal supervision of Mr. Cooke, is worthy
of praise.

S. W. B.

Bibliography

Dutch Pottery and Porcelain. By W. Pit-
cairn Knowles. George Newnes. 7s.6d.net.

In this volume the publishers have done their
work better than the author. The work is taste-
fully bound, very well printed, profusely illustrated
with some fifty plates (almost all of them good),
and issued at a moderate price. The author, on
the other hand, having only a limited space at his
disposal, has wasted a great deal of it in discuss-
ing general and personal matters which have only
a remote connexion with his subject. His his-
torical sketch is thus often wordy and superficial,
while he has not even taken the trouble to arrange
the plates to correspond with his text, or to make
a single reference to any of them. It is needless
to refer to other slips and omissions. A popular
book need not be profound, but it ought at least
to be clearly arranged and clearly written. Mr.
Knowles cannot be congratulated on fulfilling even
these modest conditions, in spite of the practical
knowledge which he possesses.

DRAWINGS

Selected Drawings by Old Masters in the
University Galleries and the Library of
Christ Church, Oxford. Part III. Chosen
and described by Sidney Colvin, M.A. Ox-
ford and London : Henry Frowde. £3 3s.
net.

We have already attempted to do justice to the
previous parts of this magnificent and scholarly
publication, so that to say that the third issue
almost surpasses the former ones in interest may
sound extravagant. The Oxford collections of
drawings, however, are so full of surprises that it
is amazing that no one should have attempted a
complete survey of them before Mr. Colvin under-
took the task.

The present series starts with a magnificent
study of a Woman's Head in black chalk, which
Mr. Colvin, after an admirable summary of pre-
vious discussions, ascribes to Verrocchio himself.
Mr. Colvin's discovery is particularly interesting
for the additional light which it casts on one of
the most perplexing problems of Renaissance art.
Posterity, we think, is sure to agree with the dis-
tinction he draws between the work of Verrocchio
and that of the pupil who painted the Madonnas
in the National Gallery and at Berlin, a distinc-
tion which becomes clearer and clearer as the
documents increase in number.

This sane and sensible judgement is again exer-
cised over another problem of the greatest interest
— the Two Battle Scenes hitherto given to Raphael
in the University Galleries. Mr. Colvin has re-
produced the replica of the second battle scene in
the collection of the Rev. W. H. Wayne, which
is the cause of all the difficulty, and decides de-
finitely in its favour against the Oxford version.

It is just possible that in this case he has been
almost too cautious in his summing-up of the evi-
dence, and while making allowance for the superior
swiftness and calligraphic vigour of the Oxford
drawing, has overlooked its superiority in suggest-
ing the solidity and weight of the struggling figures.
Mr. Wayne's drawing is sensitive in detail, and far
more able than its appearance at first suggests,
but it does just lack the substance and vitality of
the other, while several passages, such as the
muscles of the calf of the bearded bending figure,
might well be argued against its being the original
work.

The Italian masters are represented by fourteen
reproductions, all of them good ; Leonardo,
Filippino, Michelangelo, Campagnola, and Tin-
toret being among the examples chosen. An in-
teresting water-colour landscape by Diirer, and
two characteristic specimens of Altdorfer (in-
cluding a superb design of a shipwreck) repre-
sent Germany. The striking portrait of Rem-
brandt's father in the University Galleries which
follows is better known than the admirable portrait
by Rubens, or than the group of Three Musicians
by Watteau. Indeed, the most striking feature
of the series is the variety of these two Oxford
collections, which have hitherto been famous on
the strength of the tithe of the treasures which
they have had the space to exhibit.

Drawings by Old Masters of the Dutch and
Flemish Schools in the Royal Collec-
tion at Amsterdam. Part III. Williams
and Norgate. £1 14s. net.

In a previous issue we have mentioned the
sumptuousness and accuracy of these reproduc-
tions, and the third part in this respect is not
inferior to its predecessors. The introduction by
Mr. Lionel Cust, on the absence of which we
commented, was, we find, omitted in error from
the previous instalments. It is an admirable plea
for the more serious study of drawings by the great
masters, and incidentally faces with considerable
frankness the disadvantages of modern academic
teaching.

Of the ten facsimiles in the present part none
represent masters of quite the first rank, though
several, such as that by Bega, will come as a
surprise to those who know the Dutch artists only
by their paintings. The drawing by Backhuysen
of the Montalbanstor at Amsterdam suggests
that building (before the spire was added), and the
old house under it, as the subject of one of Rem-
brandt's finest drawings. The charming Study of
a Young Lady by Jan de Bray is an interesting
example of the work of one of a talented family of
painters, whose history is obscure. They are
best known in England by the large portrait group
by Jacob de Bray at Hampton Court.

C.J. H.

Bibliography

MISCELLANEOUS

Outlines of the History of Art. By Dr.

Wilhelm Liibke. Revised by Russell Sturgis.

2 volumes. Smith Elder. 36s. net.
A new edition of Dr. Liibke's well-known work.
The old woodcuts unfortunately make but a poor
show, and if the numerous full-page illustrations
which have been added had appeared alone the
general effect would have been better. We wish
we could speak more highly of the revision. The
architectural sections are tolerably good, but in
the other portions of the book far more accurate
scholarship was needed. It is unfair to expect too
much from any work which covers so wide a field,
yet had the proofs been read by two or three
competent critics the result could have been vastly
improved, although the book might not even then
have become as trustworthy as it is cheap and
comprehensive.

The Collectors' Annual for 1904. Edited by

George E. East. Elliot Stock. 7s. 6d. net.
The idea of this book is good, but it will have
to be carried out more thoroughly to be of any
real use. The prospectus states that the work
' includes representative examples only.' We turn
to the name of Titian and find four pictures men-
tioned which fetched 165, 130, 40, and 24 guineas
respectively ! The untrustworthiness of such a
guide is manifest. The book may be of some
service to those who already possess knowledge.
To those who do not, it cannot fail to be mis-

leading until some attempt is made to eliminate
copies and forgeries.

Through Isle and Empire. By the Vicomte
Robert d'Humieres. Translated by A. Teix-
eira de Mattos. Heinemann. 6s.
To see ourselves as others see us, when the others
have the kindly philosophic spirit of the Vicomte
d'Humieres is not unpleasant. The author's
good sense, tact, and humour make even his stric-
tures palatable, and the translator has caught his
spirit well. The first half of the book dealing
with England is of particular interest, and should
do much to foster the good understanding between
French and English, which seems at last to have
taken root in both countries.

We have received from Messrs. P. and D. Colnaghi
a proof of a new mezzotint by Mr. H. Scott
Bridgwater after Gainsborough's superb Mrs. Elliot
at Welbeck. The use of a black ink as in the
older mezzotints would have perhaps emphasized
the skilful treatment of the hair and accessories
better than the fashionable brown employed, but
the translation has caught admirably the languor
of the adventuress, and the contrast of dark eye-
brows, coquettish patch, and velvet ribbon with
the creamy paleness of her complexion.

We also received, too late for notice in our
March number, an illustrated catalogue of the sale
of objets d'ari, including some interesting ex-
amples of antique and mediaeval sculpture, which
took place at the Hotel Drouot on March 13-17.

JW FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE J»*

NOTES FROM GERMANY
It has happened now and then in former times
that great inauguration festivities were celebrated
with pomp long before the object to be inaugurated
was finished and ready for the occasion ; to-day
this state of affairs is the common thing. It is a
significant mark of our own age that we can never
get up enough patience to wait until a building or
monument is really completed before we rush into
the midst of a showy celebration about it.

The inauguration of the new Berlin ' cathedral '
took place a couple of weeks ago, but it will be
months still before the last artisan packs up his
tools and bids the site farewell.

New York and Berlin are the two upstarts
among our huge metropoles ; both lack the ven-
erable charm of historic associations. The erec-
tion of the huge cathedral at Berlin is a bold
attempt to make up for the deficiency. It is in-
deed a bold attempt to supply something within
a decade which, in the regular course of things,
generations upon generations have been slow to
build up. The new cathedral is meant primarily
to furnish evidence of the splendour of the new
empire, now just a generation old ; to erect a place
of religious worship was not the leading motive,

least of all a place for Protestant worship. So
far, nothing is to be held up against it ; for why
should not new eras call for new ideas and even
force old forms of life into new channels ! But
the building as a work of art has nothing new,
nothing of vitality in it. It is a conglomeration
of single correct details, forming an incorrect
whole. While he was keenly intent upon avoid-
ing faults in detail, the designer forgot to intro-
duce true virtues. Its greatest weakness is con-
nected with the question of its size, for it is not
impressively large, but awkwardly overgrown.
Like many other modern buildings, for example
the Ministry of Finance at Dresden, it appears as
a small thing that you look at through an opera
glass with one eye. The old museum at its side,
only a pigmy compared with the cathedral, gives
you a much stronger impression of magnitude if
you shut the cathedral out of your field of vision.
Instead of basing the proportions of his structure
upon those of the surrounding buildings, and in-
creasing upon them, as Christopher Wren did,
Raschdorf based them on an absolutely different
scale, and has widely missed the mark by aiming
far above it. For us at the present day, this
effort which has cost us half a million pounds

sterling, is scarcely satisfactory. Perhaps later
centuries will not be able to look upon it, as we
do, abstractedly, but will consider it as an inter-
esting and valuable document for the spirit of the
times.

The Kaiser-Friedrich Museum received the
gift of two English portraits, a Gainsborough
(presented by Mr. Alfred Beit), and the botanist
William Lenley, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence
(presented by Count Seckendorf).

Canon, a painter whose real name was Stras-
chiripka, and who tried to emulate the bold col-
oration of Rubens in his portraits, was living at
Karlsruhe during the years i860 to 1869. The
gallery there recently acquired his portrait of the
landscape painter J. \V. Schirmer and two alle-
gorical designs, Steam and Telegraphy, cartoons
for mural designs which Canon carried out in the
Karlsruhe railway station. The same gallery
has received a number of further valuable addi-
tions, among them Hans Thoma : View from
Mount Pilatus in Switzerland, three Italian views
by E. Kanoldt, Memento Mori by the late W.
Leibl (a gift of the painter Thoma), Schloss
Gutenstein by K. Weysser, and a portrait of the
quondam gallery director at Karlsruhe, the painter
K. F. Lessing, done by his son.

Probably a number of Menzel's works will be
placed in German galleries at the expiration of
the memorial show which was opened at Berlin
upon March 19. One of his best known smaller
pictures, the Promenade at Kissingen, had
already found its way into the Dresden gallery
since the death of Menzel and before the show
was opened.

The picture gallery at Munich has come into
possession of six interesting pictures of the school
of Mantegna. They represent the ' Trionfi ' of
Petrarch, and were formerly in the collection of
Count Colloredo at Mantua. H. W. S.

NOTES FROM BELGIUM 1
Brussels
M. Franz Cumont has just presented the section
of antiquities in the Royal Museum of the
Cinquantenaire with a series of ten terra-cotta
tablets and a seal of the same material covered
with cuneiform inscriptions. The tablets came
from Tello, and belong to the repository of clay
tablets which was discovered in 1S94 by Sarzec,
and constitute a fund of archives and deeds relating
to one of those temples which, in the fact that
they were great landed proprietors, resemble the
mediaeval abbeys and the modern lamasseries of
the east. From this collection, which was ex-
ploited by the Arabs in Sarzec's absence, come
the tablets that have now been presented to the
Museum of the Cinquantenaire. At a first reading
they appear to furnish lists of the personnel of the
harem, animals, grain, wine, fish, and, possibly,
1 Translated by Harold Child.

Foreign Correspondence

vestments. The seal was probably used to seal a
rush basket of fish.

The museum has also lately acquired a stove in
polychromatic Brussels faience. It consists of a
column of faience decorated in white and pale
yellow. The ornament consists of fluting inter-
rupted by courses of small foliage. To the upper
part are attached graceful garlands of flowers and
fruit. Above the stove is a vase treated like the
column, in the style of the Louis XVI period, and
made of rose-coloured terra-cotta. The pipe to
carry off the smoke was fitted, in these stoves, into
the protector, consisting of a hollow cushion nine
centimetres high which was found at the bottom
of the column. The column was fitted to a hearth
of cast iron or strong sheet iron. The stove in
question seems to have originated, like that
already in the museum, in the factory of Artoisenet
at Brussels.

The municipal museum of the city of Brussels
has just acquired a magnificent piece of tapestry
of Brussels manufacture, representing Bathsheba
at the fountain. It dates from the sixteenth cen-
tury, and is woven of wool and silk, measuring
twelve feet high and a little over twenty feet
wide.

Antwerp

An exhibition is being organized at Antwerp of
the works of the painters Leys and Braeckeleer;
it will be open from May 15 to June 15, in the
rooms where the Vandyck Exhibition was held
and the Jordaens Exhibition is to be held this
year. These two painters have left some particu-
larly remarkable work. Leys succeeded in a
happy revival of the gothic painters, and by
seeking his inspiration in the masters of the
fifteenth century painted a series of frescoes and
easel pictures of grave and sober composition and
very marked originality. Braeckeleer, summoning
the spirits of the old Flemish interiors and courts,
preserved in modern art the vision of the small
masters of Holland. The works of both artists
are particularly remarkable from the point of view
of the history of art in Belgium, and cannot fail
to arouse the liveliest interest.

Lubeck

News comes of the recent discovery in the
church at Lubeck of a very curious baptismal font
of Roman date. The bowl is cut into a thick
square stone, the corners of which have been
carved by the artist into human faces. The four
faces are surrounded and ornamented with leaves,
grapes, and fantastic animals in the most primitive
style. The lower part bears traces of a large
cylindrical pedestal and four bases of small
columns of wide circumference, with feet in the
form of a single leaf. The font lacks its supports —
that is, the central pillar and the small columns
which surrounded it ; but since these parts were
simple unsculptured cylinders, there will be no

Foreign Correspondence

difficulty in restoring them. It is to be hoped
that this interesting piece of antiquity will be
accorded the position it deserves, either in the
church or in a museum.

R. Petrucci.

NOTES FROM FRANCE 1

The new room of Egyptian antiquities has been
opened at the Louvre, and in it the public may see
the famous Mastaba, or tomb, of the fifth dynasty,
which was brought from Egypt in 1903 by
M. Georges Benedite, keeper of the Louvre. The
tomb, which is built of hard limestone, is covered
from top to bottom with admirable sculpture in
relief, heightened with colour. The interior of
the mortuary chapel is also sculptured in relief.
Among the scenes represented we may mention the
following : first, the statue of the deceased being
lowered by men down an inclined plane into the
tomb, while round it are dancers circling in
rhythmic evolutions. There is, further, a series of
scenes of life in the country ; a hippopotamus
hunt through the reeds ; netting fish in the Nile;
a herd of oxen crossing a ford ; the birth of a calf
which the farmer is carrying to the cowshed.
Then there are scenes of harvest, with the corn
being made into sheaves, and so carried on the
backs of donkeys, which, further on, are being
taken to water. Elsewhere we see the mummy
carried down the river in boats, which are rowed
down stream and come up again under sail.
Finally, on the two lateral faces, the artist has
represented the funeral banquet, to the accom-
paniment of singing, instrumental music, and
dancing, and the conveyance of the offerings,
cattle, antelopes, wild geese, etc. The sculptor
would seem to have worked about 3500 B.C., and
may have been the same whose hand may be seen
in the famous tomb of Ptah-Hotep. These pic-
tures of country life in Egypt and representations
of domestic animals are quite remarkable for their
naturalness, truth, and artistic merit, and their
delicacy is really wonderful. The considerable
scientific interest offered by the Mastaba is rein-
forced by an artistic interest quite as great, and
the Louvre is to be congratulated on a recon-
struction carried out with equal taste and method.
Near the Mastaba, among a number of other fine
things, may be seen the stele of King Serpent and
the statues of Sepa.

Two other rooms will shortly be opened, one
devoted to the discoveries at Susa, and containing
the code of Hammonrabi, the other forming a re-
construction of a Christian monastery of the third
century, the materials having been supplied by the
1 Translated by Harold Child.

Archaeological Institution of Cairo. We must
mention also the collection of antiquities from
Asia Minor, presented by M. Paul Gaudin, which
have recently been on exhibition.

The Museum of Versailles has acquired a picture
by Van Der Meulen, representing Louis XIV and
his Court hunting in the forest of Meudon. There
we may see what the village, the terraces, and the
castle of Meudon were like before the work of

Mansart - Th. Beauchesne.

Note. — Owing to the pressure on our space the notes on French
exhibitions will be found on the page devoted to exhibitions open in
April.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Auguste Rodin. By Camille Mauclair. Duckworth & Co.

10s. 6d. net.
Chats on Old Furniture. By Arthur Hayden. T. Fisher

Unwin. 5s. net.
Florence. Painted by Col. R. C. Goff; described by Mrs. Goff.

A. & C. Black. 20s. net.
Studies in Ancient Furniture. By Caroline L. Ransom.

The University Press, Chicago. 40 dol. 50 net.
Little Books on Art — Millet. By Netta Peacock. Methuen

& Co. 2s. 6d. net.
General Descriptions of Sir John Soane's Museum. By

Walter L. Spiers (Curator). Printed by Horace Hart at

Oxford.
Selected Drawings from Old Masters in the University

Galleries and in the Library at Christ Church,

Oxford. Part 3. Chosen and described by Sidney Colvin,

M.A. The Clarendon Press, Oxford. £3 3s.
Through Isle and Empire. By Vicomte Robert D'Hu-

mieres, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. William

Heinemann. 6s.
The Renaissance of Sculpture in Belgium. By Oliver

Georges Destree. Seeley & Co., Ltd. 3s. 6d. net.
The Collectors' Annual, 1904. Compiled by George E. East.

Elliot Stock. 7s. 6d. net.
Albert Durer. By T. Sturge Moore. Duckworth & Co.

7s. 6d. net.
Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. Illustrated.

Vol. V. S-Z. Algernon Graves, F.S.A. George Bell & Sons.

21s. net.
Drawings by Old Masters of the Dutch and Flemish

Schools in the Royal Collection at Amsterdam.

Part III. Williams & Norgate. £1 14s. net.

MAGAZINES RECEIVED
Le Correspondant (Paris). La Rassegna Nazionale (Florence).
La Federation Artistique (Brussels). The Kokka (Tokyo).
Revue de l'Art Chretien (Lille). Gazette des Beaux-Arts
(Paris). La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosite (Paris).
L'Arte (Rome). Onze Kunst (Amsterdam). Repertorium
fiir Kunstwissenschaft (Berlin). La Revue de l'Art Ancien
et Moderne (Paris). The Independent Review (London).
The Fortnightly Review. The Nineteenth Century and
After. The Edinburgh Review. The Monthly Review.
The National Review. The Gentleman's Magazine.

CATALOGUES, ETC.

Collection Theoph. de Bock. Tableaux, Anciens et Modernes.
Porcelaines, Vieux Delft, Meubles, Sculptures, Livres, Tapis
Persans. Frederik Miiller & Cie., Amsterdam.

Bijoux, Diamants, Argenterie, Tapisseries, Etoffes, Cuivre
Bronzes, Sculptures, Estamps Livres. Deuxieme Partie du
Catalogue. Frederik Miiller & Cie., Amsterdam.

Objets d'Art et de Haute Curiosite de l'Antiquite du Moyen
Age et de la Renaissance. Morau & Cie., Paris.

C\o

.y/ lt (,„/,, »■*//> //"■/•' >;/ <«<i<-

(/,

., ,... t t. r i,,„ ,/M // ''""- 1 " '/""'■'

jsn EDITORIAL ARTICLES j&
THE REFORM OF MUNICIPAL ARCHITECTURE

"E are justly proud of
a good deal of our
modern architecture.
It is a long time since
so much thought and
talent have been ap-
plied throughout the
country to the designing of private houses
and churches, as any architectural paper,
or the designs annually shown at the Royal
Academy, will indicate. Public buildings,
too, have sprung up all over the country
in considerable numbers, but it is impossi-
ble to contemplate them with the same
satisfaction. Very few indeed of these
more elaborate structures, these town halls,
public libraries, and art galleries can be
counted even respectable specimens of
architecture. When such a building is
erected we have cause to be grateful if it
does not turn out to be a positive eyesore.
Architecture, in fact, like the other arts,
flourishes in England, so far as it flourishes
at all, in virtue of private patronage and in
spite of officialdom.

The chief reason why our modern public
buildings are so far from what they ought
to be is indicated in the memorial which
the Royal Institute of British Architects,
and the various architectural societies in
alliance with it, have recently addressed to
the county, town, and district councils of
the United Kingdom. It is the general
practice of municipal authorities to entrust
the design of such buildings to their own
permanent officials ; and the memorial
justly declares that this practice is ' a matter
involving grave interests of an artistic,
practical, and financial nature.' The per-
manent official to whom it falls to execute
the architectural work required by a muni-
cipal authority is most frequently an engi-
gineer or surveyor who has had no proper
architectural training.

' Non-expert planning,' says the memorial,
'entails unscientific distribution and consequent

The Burlington M40«inf, No. 16. Vol. VII— May tjos.

expense in construction, often leading to subse-
quent alterations which involve waste of public
money, the amount of which is impossible to
be ascertained owing to the complicated nature
of official departments.'

On so technical a point one can but
take the best expert opinion available. But
it needs no technical training in archi-
tecture to see that from an artistic point of
view the practice of entrusting important
architectural work to anyone but a trained
architect can only be disastrous. How
disastrous it is our public buildings bear
permanent witness.

In these circumstances the architectural
societies urge upon the municipal authori-
ties that the practice of placing architectural
work in the hands of engineers or surveyors
should be abandoned ; that, if architectural
work is carried out by a permanent official,
such an official shall be required to have
passed the qualifying examination of the
Royal Institute of British Architects ; and
that the work of an official architect should
be restricted to structures of secondary im-
portance, and really important buildings
entrusted to independent architects.

The wisdom of these recommendations
is so obvious that it is only surprising that
it should be necessary to make them at all.
There has been no lack of expenditure on
the hideous buildings which all over the
country stand as monuments of well-
meaning but mis-guided municipal zeal.
It would not have cost a single farthing
more to make them works of art ; indeed it
might have cost a great deal less. This must
not be looked upon as a question of profes-
sional etiquette or interest. Undoubtedly
architects suffer pecuniarily from the em-
ployment of those who are not architects to
do architectural work; and on that ground
they have every right to protest against
the practice. But this is not the aspect of
the case that concerns the public. What
does concern the public is that, in regard to

The Reform of ^Municipal Architecture

architectural works, they should have proper
value for their money, and they will only
have proper value for their money if such
works are entrusted to the best available
talent. After all, we live in the generation
which has produced the new cathedral at
Westminster, the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in the City, and the new
municipal buildings at Cardiff, so we need
not despair.

The matter has an immediate interest for
Londoners. A million of their money will
shortly be spent in housing the London

County Council. Will the Council see that
the best possible architect is chosen ? To
entrust the vast plans which they now have
in hand to any makeshift official arrange-
ment will be to court disaster ; as anyone
will know who has seen the plan lately ex-
hibited, and published in the Daily Chroni-
cle, with the meaningless dome towering
above it. An open competition, judged by
some impartial body, such as the Govern-
ment advisory board, is the obvious method
of procedure, and we appeal to the rate-
payers to insist on its adoption.

THE BOSTON MUSEUM

The annual report of the Museum of Fine
Arts at Boston suggests some remarkable
and not very encouraging comparisons.
Here we have a museum maintained with-
out any state or municipal subsidy relying
wholly upon private subscriptions for its
support, which within a comparatively short
period has become a collection of the first im-
portance. The portrait of Philip IV which
was discussed and reproduced in the April
number of The Burlington Magazine is
only^one of the notable additions recently
made to its department of paintings. Its
department of Classical Antiquities has been
well known in Europe during the last few
years for its energy and enterprise, which in
1904 resulted in more than £35,000 being
spent upon purchases. Its collection of
oriental paintings is the largest in the
world, and in wealth of masterpieces is
second only to the Imperial Japanese
collections of Nara and Kioto. Its
Egyptian Department appears also to be

making enormous progress, thanks to the
help of the Egypt Exploration Fund, and
to the energy of that most fortunate of
Egyptologists Mr. Theodore M. Davis.

We may well feel a pang of envy on
reading the account of this section when
we think of the miserable show that the
sculpture of predynastic and protodynastic
Egypt makes in the British Museum,
although from a national point of view
this weakness is redeemed by such collec-
tions as those at Eton, and more especially
that in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
Nevertheless the astonishing advance made
by the Boston Museum in a comparatively
short time indicates how much public
spirit may do when happily blended with
private enterprise, and should be an
encouragement to the intelligent section of
the public in this country who are com-
bining in so many directions to amend the
state of things brought about by official
sloth and municipal ignorance.

J»* PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Almost everywhere we see a change in the
attitude of private individuals towards the
State. Instead of clamouring for the re-
dress of grievances which they know can
only be got at the expense of tedious wire-
pulling, men of intelligence are taking the

law into their own hands and doing what
the State is always too busy to do. The
movement is an entirely healthy one, and
its many manifestations in England at
least tend to show that the nation is not so
wholly inert as pessimists believe.

Private Enterprise in l J ublic Affairs

In the matter of our National Art this
tendency has done excellent service of re-
cent years. We have only to remember
the inquiry into the defective administration
of the Chantrey Trust to understand the
power of public spirited effort. Even if
that inquiry should have no practical result
at the moment, and the recommendations
of the Committee should be disregarded,
the inquiry would at least have pointed a
way to a permanent remedy.

The same spirit applied to local enterprise
has given to Aberdeen its new Gallery of
Sculpture. Mr. James Murray, in securing
the co-operation of his fellow citizens in
his scheme, acted more magnanimously
and far more wisely than if he had been the
only giver of the gallery and its contents.

The Report of the National Art Collec-
tions Fund upon the work done during
the first year of its existence is another
encouraging sign. The fine picture by
Watteau handed over to the National
Gallery of Ireland, and the exquisite Greek
bronze relief added to the British Museum,
will be familiar to all readers of The
Burlington Magazine, but these im-
portant acquisitions were but a portion of
the good things preserved for the nation
by the fund. The extent of its operations
in the future must depend upon the financial
support it receives from the public, but its
first year's record is so good that the sub-
scribers may well be proud of it. The
National Art Collections Fund, in fact, may
be said to represent the educated opinion
of the country so far as our galleries and
museums are concerned, and considering
thesize of the Treasury grants forpurchases,
and the rate at which valuable works of art
are leaving England, we have every reason
to be grateful for its existence and for the
admirable connoisseurship it has hitherto
shown.

The prospectus of another society just
formed indicates another attempt to make
amends for the absence of official support

in the publication of reproductions of
original drawings by the great masters.
The newly-formed society, aptly named
the Vasari Society, 1 proposes to reproduce
annually for its subscribers some twenty
famous drawings by the great artists of the
Renaissance. Since the first year's pro-
gramme includes a number of works by
Pisanello, Leonardo, Holbein and others,
and the facsimiles will be made by the
Oxford Press, already famous in connexion
with Mr. Colvin's splendid publication, we
can wish the scheme all the success it
appears to deserve.

In laying stress upon these examples ot
private enterprise it must not be thought
that we would propose to substitute private
enterprise for official action. Nothing
is further from our intention. There can
however be no doubt that in many respects
official action and official opinion are
wofully deficient, and blind to the obvious
requirements of the time. We cannot
therefore be too thankful that private
activity should be doing so much, and
thereby stimulating the State to take a more
lively interest in art and its administration.

The vacant directorship of the National
Gallery might serve as an instance of the
gulf that separates the information at the
service of the State from that which is
possessed by all private persons who follow
art affairs with any care. It is a matter
of common knowledge that there are per-
haps three men who are qualified by
scholarship and ripe judgement to do credit
to the post ; yet there is a general fear that
these may all be passed over in favour of
someone who is fortunate enough to possess
friends at court.

Unfortunately it is difficult for those
who are interested in artistic matters to feel
confident that an appointment of this kind
can be made by an already overburdened
Prime Minister, however intelligent, in

i The Hon. Secretary is Mr. G. F. Hill, 10 Kensington
Mansions, Earl's Court, S.W., and the annual subscription is
one guinea.

'Private Enterprise in Public ^Affairs

accordance with personal merit and na-
tional requirements. What everyone fears
in the case alike of the National Gallery
and of the Victoria and Albert Museum, is
a job, to put the matter quite plainly. The
directorship of the Victoria and Albert
Museum is a far more difficult post to fill
than that of the National Gallery, since
there are not, as in the case of the National
Gallery, two or three men obviously marked
out as the suitable candidates. South Ken-
sington demands a combination of admini-
strative, artistic, and purchasing ability
which are very rarely to be found in one
individual. It is quite certain that the
difficulty cannot be solved in the way in
which, according to report, the Board of
Education would like to solve it, namely
by appointing no Director at all and hand-

ing over the control of the Museum to its
own clerks. It is on the contrary vitally
important that the Victoria and Albert
Museum should be rescued from the grasp
of the Board of Education.

As we said last month, matters of this
kind cannot be dealt with satisfactorily
until we have a Ministry of the Fine
Arts in this country. We recognize the
difficulty of making such a change just now
when the hands of the Government are
fully occupied. Yet the growth of private
enterprise in England is the best possible
safeguard against the disadvantages of such
a Ministry, while the possibilities of minis-
terial co-operation with the good work that
is already being done are so great, that we
are bound to ask that the subject may be
properly considered.

J5T* CONSTANTIN MEUNIER

In Meunier the world has lost a more
considerable artist than it appears to recog-
nize, if we may judge by the scanty notices
of him which have appeared hitherto. At
first a sculptor, next, in the sixties, a realistic
painter of singular force, then a sculptor
once more, and. the draughtsman par excel-
lence of the Belgian Black Country, Meunier
gained at the last a place in the one art
second only to Rodin, and in the other a
place almost comparable to that of Millet.

No touch of the flamboyant, inherent
in the Flemish genius since the days of
Rubens, makes Meunier's sculpture seem
in the least theatrical. Thus he sets to
work almost austerely to immortalize
the modern iron-worker — his dignity,
his slavery, and his revolt from that
slavery.

From that fault Meunier's drawings too
are free. In them he is disdainful of all
show to the verge of uncouthness. His
rendering of human labour has none
of that serene Virgilian divinity which
makes the peasants of Millet seem godlike

even in their suffering. The workmen of
Meunier are no gods, but oppressed Titans
cast down to darkness and sullen hopeless
rebellion.

The attempts of Menzel and others to
deal with the artistic aspect of modern
labour are only scientific snap-shots, or
technical experiments by men who view
these things from the outside. Meunier's
blast furnaces, cinder-paths, canals, and
sulphurous twilight are seen by one who
has lived and suffered in their midst, as
Millet did among the labourers on the
plains of Barbizon. To this sincerity of
vision Meunier owes his power and his
rank among the modern artists who have
sought new worlds to conquer and have
found them. Yet though he had mas-
tered his subject he had not the time to
exhaust its possibilities. Thus the day may
come when a generation of painters of the
labours of commerce will look back to
Meunier as a generation of painters of
field labour now look back to their master
Millet.

THE PRE-RAPHAELITE AND IMPRESSIONIST HERESIES
J** BY BERNHARD SICKERT J*

HIS winter has provided
material of extraordinary
interest in four exhibi-
tions of contemporary
art, not only for the
general public which
was enabled to discuss
the intrinsic value of the pictures in them-
selves, but also for those connoisseurs who
are interested in the most recent develop-
ments of painting, and who have thus had
a unique opportunity of studying the in-
fluences which have been paramount in
producing them.

First we had the Watts Exhibition at
Burlington House, then the Whistler
Memorial Exhibition at the New Gallery,
the Durand-Ruel Exhibition at the
Grafton, and finally the Victorian Exhibi-
tion at Whitechapel. The first two have
been already dealt with in this magazine,
but the Whitechapel Exhibition affords
in the most interesting section, that of the
Pre-Raphaelites, which is extremely repre-
sentative, an instructive contrast to that
at the Grafton. Mr. Aitken and those
who were responsible for the hanging,
assisted by the veteran painter Mr. Arthur
Hughes, are to be congratulated on an
exhibition which is the most complete of
its kind that has ever been held, since it
includes not only the most representative
examples of the actual brotherhood, but
also of those who were the immediate suc-
cessors — like Arthur Hughes, R. B. Mar-
tineau, W. S. Burton, Frederick Sandys,
besides the affiliated schools, branching off
on the one hand in the eclectic school
headed by Edward Burne-Jones, and on
the other in the Academic painters, John
Brett, Val Prinsep, etc., and finally the
Liverpool school, headed by W. L. Windus,
who indeed is so pre-eminent that he
deserves a place apart.

It would be impossible in a magazine
article to examine critically all these

schools and their affiliations, but it may be
interesting to attempt a larger view, and
especially to contrast the most significant
movement in England, what we roughly
call the Pre-Raphaelite, with the most
significant movement in France, generally
known as Impressionist, exemplified in the
Grafton Gallery.

This would appear on the face of it
rather fantastic, yet the aims and intentions
of both schools may be almost stated in the
same terms, namely, to represent nature as
she is, unhampered by prejudice and tra-
dition, with the help of modern science.

We need not be misled by the term
Pre-Raphaelite, which did not at the in-
ception of the movement, at the period
of its greatest worth and vigour, involve
the study or the influence of the actual
painters before Raphael, of whom indeed
the English painters knew almost nothing,
but rather of the spirit that was conceived
as predominant in these precursors — the
earnest study of nature, intensity of feeling,
contempt of formulas.

The immediate divergence of the two
schools arose from the fundamental differ-
ence of temperament between the painters
of the period, a difference much less
marked at present between their descen-
dants.

The English painter considered beauty
to be attainable by a conglomeration of
things intrinsically beautiful. A poet's
idea is beautiful, a woman is beautiful,
mediaeval costume is beautiful, sunshine
and spring and roses are beautiful. Put
all these beautiful ingredients together and
the result must be beautiful. It is similar
to the English notion of gastronomic per-
fection, of which the most typical instance
is a Christmas pudding, a mince pie, or a
trifle.

To the French painter on the other
hand only two things are beautiful, nay,
only two things exist — Time and Place.

The Pre-Raphaelite and Impressionist Heresies

colour chiefly by Holman Hunt and
Madox Brown, whilst they show amazing
application in the class'ificatioii of phe-

The young impressionist, having abo-
lished formulas when he started on his
quest, discovered that the moment was
of paramount importance, and that during
this moment the interdependence of the
various elements was so intimate and pro-
found that if he were to lose it by attempts
to rely on memory or classification of simi-
lar phenomena the whole raison d'etre of
his picture would be destroyed.

The attempt he made seemed to most
persons foredoomed to failure, and even
now is spoken of as an experiment, but the
exhibition at the Grafton seems to show
that he did occasionally succeed in snatch-
ing veritable shreds of the flying nymph's
iridescent veil.

That nine times out of ten the drapery
so brutally wrenched off turned into a
dead rag in the painter's hands was in-
evitable, but such a picture as Monet's
The Walk on the Cliffs is a triumphant
vindication of the whole school in its
superb achievement.

On the other hand, the two ambitions
of the Pre-Raphaelite school, to represent
nature exactly as she is and at the same
time illustrate some story of human passion,
were incompatible. The painters whom
they superseded had always realized that,
in illustrative or imaginative work, some
generalization is necessary if the component
parts are to retain any sort of harmonious
relation. Hence the basis of all previous
work was traditional, and innovations
of colour and tone were very tentatively
introduced. The Pre-Raphaelite would
have none of this ; grass was green, and the
sky was blue, and a young girl's lips were
red, and so down it all went, uncompromis-
ing, assertive, childlike in its naive charm,
childish in its incompetence. Indeed it is
difficult to see where was the gain to the
Pre-Raphaelites in the assertion of isolated
phenomena which by their lack of syn-
thesis obscured the main issue.

The innovations introduced in light and

9 3

nomena, are merely interesting and
valuable to us now as pioneer work,
but the intensity of feeling is a thing
eternal, because it was carried to perfec-
tion, and it is on this ground that their
justification is chiefly to be found. In
comparison with Millais's Carpenter's
Shop, Rossetti's Found, Madox Brown's
The Last of England, Holman Hunt's
Claudio and Isabella, W. Windus's Too
Late, how cold and rhetorical as regards
expression and gesture appear even the
greatest masterpieces of Raphael, Cor-
reggio, Rubens, and the painters against
whom the movement was mainly in revolt.
Millais's instinct for natural gesture was al-
most uncanny, and contains the very breath
of life and passion, and even amongst their
exemplars Giotto alone has this look of
unexpected yet inevitable gesture, since
Mantegna, Botticelli, and the rest were
much influenced by the Greek renascence.
Without belittling this very valuable gift,
it must be admitted that from a merely
aesthetic point of view the achievements
seldom resulted in a beautiful whole.

To paint with whatsoever care and love
a beautiful subject does not necessarily
produce a beautiful object, which can only
be effected by a beautiful interpretation ;
and it is a strange irony or Nemesis that
this eternal truth, conceived with un-
erring taste by the boor and drunkard
George Morland, and by the down-
right and unaffected Hogarth, to speak
only of our own painters, should have been
ignored by the exquisite Rossetti, the
learned Madox Brown, the accomplished
Millais.

The Pre-Raphaelites were indifferent to
this essential truth, and although the im-
pressionists in their earlier work had not
quite forgotten the exquisite technique of
the great classics and of their immediate

OGE, BY AUGUSTE RENOIR;
iDUCED BY PERMISSION OF
M. DURAND-RUEL.

The Pre-Raphaelite and Impressionist Heresies

precursors, Corot and Daubigny and
Millet, as witness the adorable quality of
Boudin, which excuses a rather ordinary
vision, and the severer beauty of the pate
of Manet, yet towards the end in the later
work of Monet, Pissarro, Sisley, and Re-
noir there is no remnant of a beautiful
style left. Pissarro especially affected a
quality like pulled bread, which is ex-

cruciating.

Degas on the other hand stands quite
apart like Whistler. His vision is founded
on nature, but his technique on the great
classics. The little canvas Carriage at the
Races is by a Gerard Terborch who hap-
pened to live in 1873, and the pastels
are models of style.

The impressionist too often violated his
material, it is true, but the Pre-Raphaelite
approached it with such timidity and
reverence that a divorce might well be
instituted frigiditatis causa as Master Cut-
beard hath it.

I think the world has not yet realized
what a loss it sustained by the early
death of Walter Howell Deverell. His
picture of The Lady with the Bird-cage,
reproduced here, 1 stands alone among the
Pre-Raphaelites as showing, not only an
appreciation of a beautiful subject, but a
faculty for interpreting it into a beautiful
object.

The canvas of W. Windus in his picture
Too Late, which stands opposite, a marvel
of achievement, is as consumptive as the
lady ; the colours are as raw and hectic.
Compare with this the beautiful full
quality, the mellow tone, the sober and
tasteful handling of Deverell's work. It is
surely significant too that the picture has
no subject, it is merely a lady feeding her
bird ! Shade of Ruskin ! Only a sub-
ject, that is, in which Terborch might have
delighted, and before which Reynolds
might have gone on his knees.

But by attending only to the visible

1 Frontispiece, page 92.

beauty of the thing actually before him
Deverell showed himself not only a worthy
descendant of the great painters, but added
that something new which is always
attainable by a sincere and single-minded
vision. The lighting especially is admirably
modern, the conflicting cold and warm
lights, as in the transparent sleeve for in-
stance, are stated with a realism and at the
same time with a taste which is unique in
this gallery, and which has not been sur-
passed, though it has been equalled, by
painters of the present day. The common
ground on which the various schools meet
is the point where they are greatest, and if
we compare this picture with Renoir's
La Loge, 2 we can only find in the choice
of subject and type, a choice which looms
larger now than with the perspective of
time, any really fundamental difference of
selection. The Frenchman's work has less
severity and nobility ; it shows already the
weakness of structure which grew upon
him, but the simple sincere painter's vision
is the same, and seems to show that in
genre at least the difference between the
two schools was not necessarily so pro-
found as it appeared subsequently.

We have been taught to admire the
finish of the Pre-Raphaelites, and no doubt
it is admirable, but it is seldom great like
the finish of Terborch or van der Heyden.
" It is a matter of no great difficulty to
draw a chain every link of which can be
counted, this being merely a matter of time
and patience. But nature is never obliging,
and what she presents to us, taking a chain
to be the system of the construction of each
object, is not one chain or twenty, but
twenty thousand, some large, some small,
some apparently irregular, crossing and
recrossing each other, and returning on
themselves, thereby interfering (in the scien-
tific sense), making an inextricable web.
Add to this the freaks of light, colour,
and atmosphere which suppress, alter, or

2 Reproduced, page 99.

IOI

The Pre-Raphaelite and Impressionist Heresies

emphasize every link, and the task of un-
ravelling the whole is obviously imprac-
ticable.

Confronted with such an aspect as this,
the impressionist realizes at once that if he
began to ask himself whether such and
such links are rendered invisible through
the interference of other links of another
chain, and if so of which, or whether they
are rendered invisible by the suppressive
action of light or shade or colour or atmo-
sphere or all of them, he would soon
throw his brushes down in despair. His
only chance is to ignore the catenary
principle altogether and pick up the links
as they emerge. In so doing he is bound
to miss some of the links or indeed to
lose the connexion altogether, and it is
only by the goodwill of the spectator
that the constructive sense is not entirely
lost.

Or to use another illustration we may
say that any aspect in nature is con-
structed in the form of a limited number
of pegs or steps with gaps between,
which the artist, like an athlete or al-
pinist, has to cross with what security he
can. The gaps are not, of course, vacuums ;
they are indeed the most interesting parts,
but they act like a repoussoir as it were, and
are only in that sense constructively useful.

When the artist-athlete comes to a very
wide gap he must leap it, and it is hardly
probable that he will alight on the next
step or eminence with the same precision
as in a short step. But it must be done at
once and boldly. If he stands shivering on
his last eminence, or vainly trying to get a
precarious foothold on smaller subsidiary
steps, he may reach the next point, but
with no more precision in the event, and
with considerable scarification, perspiration,
and loss of time in the process. The
Pre-Raphaelite, by multiplying his steps

and diminishing his gaps to an uncon-
scionable extent, gave the untrained ob-
server a sense of great security and con-
fidence ; but the method is quite unnatural.
He could thereby render the complication,
not the mystery of nature, whilst the im-
pressionist could and did render this mys-
tery. But goodwill, as I said, is necessary
on behalf of the spectator. If he sulks
and won't play because the game is a new
and complicated one, the two must part
company, but the spectator is the loser
thereby.

Nature's three ministers — light, colour,
and atmosphere — indifferent to our pre-
occupations, will each point an arbitrary
finger at her own selection, and the im-
pressionist, having no moral axes to grind,
will follow their indications unswervingly.
Often, it is true, he will succeed in dehu-
manizing himself without thereby becom-
ing god-like, but he is in the company of the
gods, of Shakespeare, Balzac, Tourgen-
ieff, Bach, Beethoven, with those that offer
no apology for the exercise of their art, and
whose message seems not to mean any one
thing, because, like life itself, it means
everything. This detachment, which was
so characteristic of the Dutch masters and of
the French painters, would seem, to judge
from the Victorian Exhibition, to be utterly
repugnant to the English temperament, but
there were signs of it in English painting
of the previous century, and the French
influence has certainly caused a tendency
to recur to it in recent years.

The romance of the Pre-Raphaelites
degenerated in the bands of the Acade-
micians, as it was bound to do, into
mere Wardour Street studio painting, but
the intense humanity of the Pre-Raphaelite
outlook while it lasted makes the inter-
lude the most interesting movement of
modern times.

102

No. 7. 1710.

No. 6. LONDON, l682.

Plate iv. English silver wine-coolers
of the charles ii. period in the
collection of the duke of portland,

K.G.

CHARLES II SILVER AT WELBECK

^r* BY J. STARKIE GARDNER JW

PART II {Conclusion)

E have seen that arti-
cles intended purely
tor decoration were
made of thin sheet
silver, effectively but
probably rapidly em-
bossed. When articles for use were in
question it was otherwise. Perhaps the
most massive pieces of plate that have come
down to us are the enormous wine-coolers
of which a superb specimen (Plate IV,
No. 6), weighing i,i6ooz., is preserved
at Welbeck. The body is fluted and rests
upon lions' feet, and is provided at either
end with ring handles depending from
lions' masks. The length of this wine-
cooler is 3 feet 6 inches, and the width

2 feet 8 inches, and it stands 13 inches in
height. It was made in London in 1682,
the maker using a crowned S for mark ;
and the arms of Robert Harley, first earl
of Oxford and Mortimer, are engraved up-
on it. Only such families as have been
exempt from the common ups and downs
of fortune that all but the few have been
liable to have retained plate which must
when produced have been regarded as
more or less reserves of specie. An even
larger wine-cooler was made the previous
year for the Manners family, and is now
at Belvoir. Their crest (a peacock in its
pride upon a cap of maintenance) forms
appropriate handles. It resembles the Wel-
beck specimen, but stands higher, and is en-
riched inside and out with borders of acan-
thus, its weight being 2,000 oz., and the
maker R. L., probably Ralph Leeke. Lord
Chesterfield has a third example, even
larger and higher, but weighing much less
(1,084 oz.), made by I. C. Earl Spencer
owns a fourth, 1,920 oz. in weight, and

3 feet 8 inches in length, made by Peter
Harrache in 1701.

Large wine-coolers of metal, by Italian

artists of the later Renaissance, are fre-
quently represented as standing on the
floors during feasts, filled with vessels for
wine. One very nearly identical with the
Welbeck specimen is shown in the fore-
ground of Van Barren's picture of Charles I
Dining in Public State, now at Hampton
Court. It is shown as gilt, and the lion's
head and ring handle is in front instead of
at the ends ; two old rectangular wine-flasks
stand in it. Wine-coolers were used in
the same manner in Holland and Germany.

A second cistern of smaller dimensions
and later date (1710) is also illustrated. 1
It is of somewhat more artistic form, shaped
like an oval tazza, richly gadrooned, and
on a low foot. The handles are graceful
and excellently modelled as terminal female
recurved figures. The weight is 365 oz.
Gabriel Sleath, well known in his day,
produced it and engraved it with the arms
of Edward Harley, afterwards second earl
of Oxford.

These capacious wine-coolers which
stood upon the floor were supplemented
later by others equally massive, for the
buffet, urn-like vessels, provided internally
with removable ice chambers, through
which the wine percolated to be drawn
off by a tap. These, known as wine-foun-
tains, were made as companion pieces to
the wine-coolers, which they did not super-
sede. One of the same date and by the
same maker as the cooler last described is
fortunately preserved at Welbeck. 2 It
weighs 450 oz., and is upwards of 2 feet
6 inches high. The cover is tall, of many
members, gadrooned, and surmounted by
a pine cone. The body is widest under
the lip, where there are four salient lion
masks, two of which hold ring-handles ;
the spaces between being filled with finely-
chased strapwork, interrupted by medallions

1 Plate IV, No. 7. 2 Plate V, p. 107, No. 9.

105

£harles II Silver at Ji^elbecJ^

enclosing shaped escutcheons bearing
the arms of William Baron Ogle, duke of
Newcastle. Under this is a cylindrical
region, divided by four applied acanthus
console brackets supporting the lions' heads
above, the remainder being decorated with
fine arabesqued foliated work in low relief.
The lower part is cup-shaped and fluted,
and rests upon a low and massive foot en-
riched with a salient laurel band and an
acanthus border. The tap is formed of a
grotesque head, and is actuated by a minia-
ture dolphin. The earl of Chesterfield's
wine-cooler has also its companion foun-
tain, 4 ieet 4 inches in height, and weigh-
ing 2,462 oz., spirally fluted, and surmounted
by a tower and the earl's crest. Earl
Spencer's wine-cooler has also the com-
panion fountain, spirally fluted, and made
in 1 70 1 by Peter Harrache. Two other
remarkable specimens are illustrated in
' Old Silver Work ' ; one made by Joseph
Ward in 1702, belonging to the duke of
Newcastle, and the other to the duke of
Rutland, made by David Willaume in 1728,
the decoration possibly suggested by the
Manners crest.

Perfectly unique is the splendid pair of
large wine-fountains, 2 ft. 10 in. in height
and weighing 435 oz. each, of Charles II
date. 3 The bodiesare oval with spirally-fluted
necks, egg-and-tongue mouldings, and an
applied border of richly-chased acanthus
leaves on the shoulder, separated by a plain
region from the arching-strap and acanthus
pattern below. The relatively small feet
have gadroon, acanthus, and egg-and-tongue
decorations. In front is an applied escut-
cheon engraved with the arms of Robert
Harley, earl of Oxford, quartering Bramp-
ton. The taps are ingeniously designed,
the head and arms of a nude child holding
a dolphin, which forms the spout. The
gadrooned covers are surmounted with bold
stags'-heads, the crest of the Cavendishes,
and they are also provided with immense

Plate V, p. 107, No. 8.

scrolled handles, permitting them to be
carried either like pails, or from the sides,
like pitchers. These are chased with
acanthus leaves, and the lateral scrolls end
in dragons' heads.

Of similar outline, but without the large
scrolled handles, the taps, and the stags'-
heads, are the vases, 17J inches high, with
double covers, made in 1666 by a maker
using a cross for mark on a shield. 4 The
arms engraved upon the escutcheons are
those of the earl of Portland. They are
fluted and gadrooned with festoons of
flowers in high relief, and have salient
handles, consisting of the heads and necks
of lions boldly modelled. They weigh
265 oz. and are perfectly unique.

Our illustrations of the Welbeck plate
of the second half of the seventeenth
century conclude with a massive pair of
richly worked and fluted flagons, weighing
344 oz. (No. 1 1 ), made by William Denny
in 1700. They are engraved with the arms
of Edward, second earl of Oxford. They
measure no less than 20 inches in height.

Tapering cylindrical flagons first appear
in the time of Elizabeth, borrowed no doubt
from the German canettes, vessels of
pottery in form of a truncated cone with
bowed handle, which in Elizabethan times
were richly decorated. A few English
examples in silver of this period have sur-
vived, many of them highly decorated with
fine embossing and borders. They were
lighter and more elegant, but fell somewhat
suddenly into disuse. Soon after they
were revived, but in a perfectly plain and
more massive type that remained in vogue
from about 1640 until the end of the cen-
tury. The duke of Portland possesses a
pair of these also, a foot in height, made
by W. S. in 1677. Towards the close of
the century they are found embellished with
applied coats of arms and acanthus and
gadrooned borders, in the same way that
the tankards, which must often have been

* Plate VI, p. no, No. jo.

I06

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No. II. FLAGONS, [7OO.

No. 10. Vases, 1666.

Plate vi. English silver of the ciiafles ii.
period i\ the collection of the duke of
portland, i

used with them, were treated. The superb
pair at Welbeck is richly fluted and gad-
rooned, and must also be perfectly unique,
and probably the finest in existence.

In addition to the plate illustrated, the
vast stores at Welbeck comprise a superb
pair of Pilgrim bottles of 1692 illustrated
in ' Old Silver Plate,' i8§ inches high; a
large silver bell of 1685 ; a pair of baluster
candlesticks, 1686 ; toilet services; boxes;
a table ; fire-dogs ; salvers, one of 1667;
beakers ; tankards ; porringers, etc. — form-
ing an absolutely unrivalled collection of
this particular period.

The silversmiths under Charles II flou-
rished for a time. They were useful at
first in supplying the King with money,
and as he became more wealthy his dealings
with them increased, and his commissions
for their wares were lavish. He became
on familiar terms with several, and created
them knights and even baronets, and they
founded several of the still-existing noble
families. However, already in 1663 the
' Russia Resident,' Sir John Hibden,
thought the King dealt over much with
goldsmiths, ' suffering himself to have his
purse kept and commanded by them.'
Defoe, in the ' Compleat Tradesman,' pic-
tures one in the height of his prosperity,

Qharles II Silver at Welbecl^

living near the Monument, who had
£200,000 clear, a prodigious sum in those
days. He was clothed with embroideries
and cloth-of-gold waistcoat, rode in a
coach and six, with three or four footmen
waiting for him at the Exchange Gate ;
his lady, in her gilt coach which cost £400,
dressed in the richest habit imaginable,
'■tout brillant as the French call it, covered
with diamonds and jewels without price.'
But ' put not your trust in princes,' for in
less than twenty years the man of the cloth-
of-gold waistcoat paid one penny in the
pound. Closing the Exchequer brought
these magnificent goldsmiths, knights,
aldermen, lord mayors, from immense
wealth to the lowest misery and poverty.
Among the ruined known to Defoe were
Sir Robert Vyner, Alderman Backwell, Sir
Thomas Vyner, Sir John Sweetapple, Sir
Matthew Kirwood, Sir Thomas Cook,
Sir Basil Firebrass, Sir Justus Beck, and
Alderman Forth and his two brothers, so
rich that one of them undertook to farm
the revenues of Ireland ; of whom when
they failed the King facetiously said three-
fourths of the city were broke. Defoe
remarks that there were hundreds of others
equal to those in wealth, though not
honoured with the ' Sir' and gold chain.

rtt

J** THE FAILURE OF OUR WATER-COLOUR TRADITION

'HE New York Water-
Color Club is holding its
first Exhibition inLondon
and the event coincides
with shows of the most
eminent living English
water-colourists and of
deceased masters of the art at Messrs.
Agnew's and at Whitechapel.

For seriousness and nobility nothing in
Messrs. Agnew's Exhibition could be com-
pared with the examples of Girtin, and of
one or two men like Varley and De Wint,
who now and then caught something of the
majesty of Girtin's style — a style which is
in its essence only a development of the
magnificent pen-and-bistre work of Rem-
brandt. Turner occupied another solitary
pinnacle with his dreamy blending of
splendour and delicacy. All the rest of the
work seemed trivial in comparison with
Girtin, clumsy and prosaic in comparison
with Turner.

How would our modern water-colourists
emerge from a similar ordeal ? Let us
consider first the drawings by Mr. Sargent
at the Carfax Gallery. It is evident at a
glance that brilliancy and accomplishment
can go no further. A century ago men
spoke of the ' swordplay ' of Girtin's
brush, and the phrase might be applied to
Mr. Sargent with equal truth. Yet in Mr.
Sargent's case one cannot help feeling that
the sword is flashed and flourished as if the
swordsman were bent more on astonishing
the spectator than on driving his point
home. To match him with Girtin is to
match a Porthos with a D'Artagnan.

The show of the New York Water-
Color Club suffers from the same defect.
The level of technical skill displayed is
singularly high, and examples of talent and
keen observation may be seen on all sides ;
yet the total effect of the collection is dis-
appointing. Everything is cleverly seen
and noted, but very little seems to be
strongly felt. One or two of the less

112

striking drawings, such as Mr. J. H. Moser's
In the Adirondacks (57), for this reason
remain in the memory when far more
brilliant things are forgotten. Mr. Arthur
I. Keller's The Sisters (58), for example, is
a brilliant piece of accomplishment, but the
accomplishment is out of all proportion to
the dignity of the interests on which it is
lavished, which are those of an illustration
in a popular magazine.

The fault, however, does not seem to lie
with lack of subject matter so often as
with some inherent defect in the medium
as employed by modern artists. The blot
of wet colour on white paper is un-
doubtedly sparkling, luminous, and ad-
mirably adapted to rendering things where
freshness and brightness are essential, as in
effects of mid-day sunlight, or in flower
painting. 1 To limit the water-colour
painter to such subjects, however, would be
to cut him off from all the effects by which
the landscape painters of the world have
achieved greatness. Such a restriction is
absurd, yet it is constantly being imposed
upon modern water-colourists by mistaken
veneration for the quality of their medium.

Now the blot of wet colour on white
paper, with all its luminous freshness, is
undeniably poor and crude in quality. It
cannot, for instance, stand a moment's
comparison with the quality of hue which
even a second-rate Japanese colour print
possesses. The fault would appear to lie
to some extent with the paper employed
rather than with the pigments, since Mr.
Conder working on silk with modern colours
invariably gets quality of a delightful kind.

The old practitioners certainly managed
to avoid this rawness and poverty to some
extent by the use of quiet and simple
colours. Nothing, for instance, could be
simpler than the tones in which Girtin
conceived the majestic composition repro-
duced. Much, however, should, I believe,
be attributed to the use of a slightly

1 As in Mr. Francis E. James's water-colours lately shown
at the Dutch Gallery.

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The Failure of Our Water-Colour Tradition

absorbent paper, not always dead white in
hue, which modified and softened each
wash of colour laid upon it. Yet the
example of the Japanese seems to show
that water-colour, even when applied to an
absorbent paper with a brush, has not the
richness or quality of the same colour
applied by means of a wood block, or when
used upon silk. The method of Girtin
thus modifies the natural difficulty of
water-colour painting, but does not wholly
remove it.

Turner, after mastering Girtin's manner,
set himself to remedy its defects, by a free
use of rubbing out, of stippling and of body
colour. With this last, as in the Rivers of
France series, he achieved fairly consistent
success, but in later life he returned once
more to transparent work, and by elimi-
nating from his palette all colours but
thoseof sunset, and by astonishing dexterity
in their manipulation, he produced speci-
mens of colour which are often unique of
their kind. Nevertheless it is undeniable
that Turner's success was achieved in spite
of his medium rather than by means of it,
and necessitated restrictions of subject of
handling and of palette to which other
artists could not be expected to submit.

The experiment of a less conventional
approach to nature with transparent colour
was being made meanwhile both by men
of strong talent like Cotman and Cox, and
by a host of men of less power. 2 It resulted
uniformly in failure either partial or com-

2 The example of Cotman is specially instructive. In early
life he worked like Girtin on semi-absorbent paper with a re-
stricted palette, and his colour is uniformly fine. Later he took
to drawing upon hard white paper, and using a full palette, with
results far less uniformly harmonious than in his first period.
Sometimes of course his great talent enables him to emerge
successfully. More often, however, his remarkable power of
conception, his mastery of deliberate arrangement, and his
wonderful accuracy of touch are unable to save him from hot-

plete. How many works of the so-called
English School of Water-Colour could be
hung by the side of an old Japanese print
without looking either weak or garish ?
Yet this fatal tradition has continued to the
present day from the mistaken idea that it
represents the natural capacity of the
medium.

What then are its capacities ? Girtin
has proved that transparent water-colour if
restricted in hue and used on semi-absorb-
ent paper is a noble and simple art. Turner
and the Preraphaelites — the drawings of
Rossetti, Madox Brown, and Burne-Jones
at Whitechapel will serve as examples —
have proved that water-colour if used
solidly and masterfully, and if strengthened
with body-colour and ' wiping-out,' can
rival oil painting in strength and splen-
dour. 3 The artists of China and Japan in
the past, and in the present Mr. Conder,
have illustrated its exquisite quality when
used upon silk. The ' Rip Van Winkle '
drawings of Mr. Rackham, in which
water-colour is blended with pen-and-ink
work, indicate its possibilities in another
direction, and the example of Rubens and
Rowlandson might be quoted to show
that Mr. Rackham's success is no accident.
The record of so-called pure water-colour
on the other hand is one of almost con-
sistent mediocrity, and it is surely time
that its tradition was thoroughly recon-
sidered, p. A.

ness and harshness. Towards the end of his life he seems to
have recognized the cause of his difficulties as Turner did, and
by free use of rubbing-out obtained quality and harmony once
more. The fine collection of his drawings recently acquired by
the British Museum admirably illustrates these changes.

3 Mr. D. Y. Cameron's landscape at the Royal Society of
Painters in Water Colours is another striking example of the
superior force and richness of colour which may thus be
obtained.

THE ROUEN PORCELAIN

^ BY M. L. SOLON J&

T is no longer allowable to
begin a casual paper on
pottery with the time-
honoured remark that ' the
M origin of the ceramic art is
^•— *f^wrappeH U p in mystery.

Yet I have been tempted to make use of
a very similar sentence as affording, in
connexion with the history of the inven-
tion of artificial porcelain, a befitting in-
troduction to the study of the subject.
The deeper our researches penetrate into
the cloudy past, the more diffident one
feels about the security of the very grounds
on which rests our present knowledge.
Experience has taught us that any notion
universally accredited to day is liable to
be bodily upset by the surprises that to-
morrow has in store for us. This has been
the case with all the previous theories bear-
ing on the origin of European porcelain.

When and where was the white and
translucid ware — the most exalted pride
of the potter — produced in Europe for
the first time ? This seems a simple
question which ought to have received by
this time a definite answer. But if we call
to mind the modified views which were
successively entertained on this point by
our forerunners in the field of historical
investigation, we come to the conclusion
that the problem is rather difficult to solve,
and that the last word has yet to be said
about it. That the artificial, or soft, por-
celain was made to imitate the priceless
vessels of which a few rare specimens were
beginning to be imported from the far East,
cannot be doubted. So different, however,
are the constituent materials of the original
examples from those of which the imita-
tions were made that the relation of one
ware to the other cannot extend farther
than a certain likeness in their outward
appearance. We may dismiss, therefore,
all idea of oriental parentage, and consider

116

European porcelain in the light of an un-
questionably original creation.

For long the curiosity of the passionate
collector of old Sevres china has rested
satisfied with the belief that the manufac-
ture of the dainty objects of his predilection
had originated at the place from which it
derived its name. Only a very few of the
most experienced amateurs admitted that a
few trials, by no means negligeable, had
previously been made at Vincennes. One
day it came to be known that the secret of
the much admired pastes and glazes had
been brought over to Vincennes by two
workmen coming from Chantilly, a small
factory where the making of soft porcelain
had attained, many years before, a high
degree of perfection. Also, that the rapid
development of the royal porcelain works
at Sevres was partly due to the engagement
of several skilful operatives whose practical
experience had been gained at Mennecy-
Villeroy, another minor establishment the
productions of which were scarcely second
to those of Chantilly.

Once started on this course the retro-
spective survey could not stop at that point.
Many years elapsed, however, before a
paragraph discovered in the ' Relation of a
Journey to Paris,' by Dr. Martin Lister,
printed in 1698, revealed the fact that at
that time the manufacture of a fine porce-
lain ' as white and translucid as the one
that came from the East ' was in full opera-
tion at Saint-Cloud. An immediate search
was instituted by the collectors ; it pro-
duced a large number of marked specimens
the source of which was unmistakable.
They are now represented in all the ceramic
galleries. One may see that there is little
in the nature of the paste, or in the quality
of the glaze of the average examples, that
is suggestive of a ware still in the experi-
mental stage, while the choicest examples
strike us as being very near technical ex-

cellence. This was a sensational discovery ;
it was decided that the birthplace of
European porcelain should not be sought
for anywhere else. Accordingly Saint-
Cloud was henceforth to be considered as
the main trunk from which the other
factories had branched ofF, and full credit
was to be given to its founder Chicanneau
for a glorious invention. So implicitly was
this opinion accepted by all china collectors,
that when a Norman archaeologist, a noted
authority on all matters of local history,
ventured to assert, proofs in hand, that
porcelain had been made at Rouen years
before it was produced at Saint-Cloud,
such an allegation could only be received
with a polite smile of incredulity. In
vain Andre Pottier unearthed from the
civic archives the original documents
which secured to the fai'encier Louis
Poterat the right of calling himself the
inventor of the translucid ware and of
enjoying the fruit of his invention ; in vain
he produced extracts from contemporary
books establishing that the manufacture
was steadily carried on in the town. It
was only when a few specimens of the ware
were duly identified, and after excavations
made on the site of the old works had
brought to light unimpeachable vouchers
in the shape of fragments and imperfect
pieces, that the existence of Rouen porce-
lain became an accepted fact.

Louis Poterat was the eldest son of a
man to whose abilities and energy the chief
city of Normandy owes the establishment
of a mighty ceramic industry. Of the few
abortive attempts that had been made at
an earlier date to introduce faience painting
in the Italian taste, it is needless to speak ;
they had vanished without leaving any
trace. At Nevers, on the contrary, the
importation of the art of the Savona
majolists, instigated and patronized by the
duke of Gonzalve, had developed into a
most prosperous trade. The whole king-
dom was willingly tributary to the Nevers

The Rouen 'Porcelain

factories for the supply of a painted faience,
of national origin, which was deemed to be
as fine and pleasing as any that had so far
been imported from foreign countries. In
1 644, Edme Poterat, sieur de Saint-Etienne,
a gentleman related to the nobility of
Champagne, undertook to create in the
busy and wealthy town of Rouen a centre
of artistic pottery manufacture which would
render the northern provinces of France
independent of the products of all other
sources. The invention of French porce-
lain is so closely connected with the
immense success of this earlier enterprise
that I cannot refrain from briefly relating
the favourable conditions under which it
was accomplished.

Two partners were associated in the
foundation of the faience factory ; namely,
the above-mentioned Edme Poterat, on
whom devolved the installation and the
practical management of the affair, and
Nicholas Poirel, sieur de Grandval, who
supplied the necessary funds and remained
up to 1774 the sole proprietor, not only
of the land and buildings, but also of the
whole plant. This Poirel de Grandval
was, by his position of usher to the Queen's
bedchamber, a man of some influence at
Court. He obtained a royal privilege of
an unusual character, which was to protect
the Rouen factory from any direct com-
petition for a period of fifty years. To this
advantage must be added the value of the
high patronage that his constant attendance
at the King's palace allowed him to secure
from the courtiers. Finally, if we consider
that the demand for painted faience was
increasing from day to day, and that the
ware manufactured by Poterat had sufficient
merit and novelty to attract and please
numerous purchasers, we shall understand
that the partners had not to wait long
before the concern was on its way to fame
and prosperity.

Brought up from early youth to the
practice of the trade, Louis Poterat had

117

The Rouen 'Porcelain

soon mastered all that could be learned,
from his fellow workers, of the regular
manufacture of a fine faience. The ob-
servations he was able to gather in the
course of his travels abroad widely enlarged
the scope of his technical knowledge, greatly
superior to that of the average master-
potter of the times. For several years the
son served his father in the capacity of
assistant manager, at an annual salary of
1,000 livres. In 1673, seeing that there
was no hope of his ever being taken into
partnership, and anxious to improve his
position, he determined to leave the paternal
works and to establish close by a factory
of his own. A man of superior abilities,
as Louis Poterat undoubtedly was, could
not have tied himself to a mere observance
of the humdrum rules of a settled manu-
facture. All the moments he could spare
from the arduous management of his father's
work had been spent in the retirement of
the laboratory, proving recondite formulas,
combining untried substances in his search
for the unknown. Like many of his
contemporaries, he was haunted by the
frantic ambition of solving the mystery of
the translucid ware ; more fortunate than
any of them, he had succeeded in obtaining,
if not the real body of the Chinese por-
celain, at least an admirable substitute.

On the production of trial pieces which
for whiteness and translucency left nothing
to be desired, Louis Poterat was granted
letters patent which fixed to thirty years
the term of his exclusive rights to the
invention. The document, dated 1673,
begins as follows : —

' LOUIS, by the grace of God King of France
and of Navarre, etc.

' Our beloved Louis Poterat has very humbly
remonstrated to us that during his journeys in
foreign countries, and through unremitting appli-
cation, he has discovered the secret of making the
true Chinese porcelain and the faience of Holland.
However, as the aforesaid porcelain can only be
manufactured in conjunction with the making of
the faience of Holland, because porcelain can only
be safely baked when surrounded in the oven by

Il8

a screen of coarser ware which protects it from
the violence of the fire, it is indispensable for him
to obtain our permission to manufacture conjointly
faience and porcelain, and be allowed to erect
such ovens, mills, and workshops as he may
require, in the suburb of Saint-Sever, in the town-
ship of Rouen, which he finds particularly con-
venient for the purpose.'

And it ends by saying : —

' On that account ... we grant to the appli-
cant the right of establishing the manufacture of
all sort of vessels, similar to those of China, or to
the painted faience of Holland, notwithstanding
the previous prohibitions entered in our letters
granted to Nicolas Poirel, sieur de Grandval,
September 16th, 1646, from which we derogate on
the present occasion.

'Signed, Louis; and, By order of the King,
Colbert.'

That pretence — for it was nothing else —
of porcelain having to be fired in the centre
of an oven full of faience had provided
the means of evading the effects of a pro-
hibitive decree still in full force. Louis
Poterat was well aware that it might be
long before his newly-born invention could
be carried on at a profit. By no means in
affluent circumstances, he had arranged
that the remunerative production of orna-
mental faience should support him until a
most complicated manufacture would have
been safely regulated. Far from adhering
to his projected imitation of Dutch ware
he preferred to impart to the decorative
work an essentially French character. It
was he — if it is rightly conjectured — who
introduced those scolloped and radiated
patterns known as Lambrequins, Broderies,
etc., which are the glory of the Rouen
faience ; the same design is occasionally
seen painted on his porcelain as well as on
the faience.

To conquer the obstacles which impeded
the establishment of a normal manufacture
of white porcelain was not, for a far-seeing
master-potter, a mere question of satisfying
his professional pride ; it meant fortune for
the inventor, and salvation for the whole
French trade, seriously threatened by the
increase of foreign imports. Prospects of

an alarming competition are disclosed in the
custom-house returns for the later part of
the seventeenth century. From that source
we hear that in the very town of Rouen
four ships arrived from Surrah, in 1683,
with a cargo of 1 33,000 pieces of Japanese
porcelain, which were to be landed and sold
by auction in the course of a few days.

But neither the urgency of getting fully
prepared to meet the coming danger, nor
the constant but fruitless practice of a process
the shortcomings of which could not be
overcome, appear ever to have brought
Poterat nearer to the point where an ad-
mirable technical achievement could be
turned into a marketable commodity. Casual
references to his translucid ware, found in-
serted in the printed works of the period,
warrant the belief that he never abandoned
the hope of mastering the practical diffi-
culties which had so far stood in the way
of a financial success. As late as 1691,
the Almanach des Adresses de Paris, by de
Pradelles, contained the announcement
that : ' Sieur de Saint-Etienne, a master-
fai'encier of Rouen, has found the secret of
making the true Chinese porcelain.' The
absence of further particulars would induce
us to infer that after eighteen years the
Poterat porcelain, so tersely recommended,
had not yet found a firm footing on the
market.

The inventor gave vent to his discontent
in the considerationshe presented in support
of an application made in 1694 for the ex-
tension of his privilege. Since the death
of his father, in 1687, the original faience
factory had been successfully managed by
the widow and the two younger sons. They
held the old letters-patent granted in 1644,
in the name of P. de Grandval, for the
making of faience. As the term of fifty
years was coming to an end, they solicited
a renewal of their protecting clauses. The
form of the application was so cunningly
drawn out that had the demand been fully
complied with, the privilege would have

'The Rouen 'Porcelain

carried with it the exclusive right of manu-
facturing porcelain as well as faience. Louis
Poterat could not allow a confusion so pre-
judicial to his own interests to escape
without protest. Speaking on his own be-
half, he represented that he was the only
discoverer of the true porcelain, and that
his brothers, notwithstanding their preten-
sions, were absolutely unacquainted with
the processes. He also explained that up to
that time he had not attempted to develop
to a large extent the production of 'fine
porcelain.' Every part of the work had,
so far, been done with his own hands ; he
did not care to call to his assistance in-
quisitive workmen who might have robbed
him of his precious secrets. So limited
had, consequently, been the output that it
never proved remunerative. Now, he went
on to say, that illness and incipient para-
lysis had rendered him unfit for manual
labour, he was quite willing to instruct and
train to the handicraft a number of work-
men, on condition that he would have the
exclusive right of making porcelain in the
whole kingdom, during twenty years, after
which time his processes would be disclosed
and would become public property. He
suggested that the manufacture could give
employment to the old army pensioners,
and thus be profitable to the State. Ulti-
mately, and as soon as the enterprise had
been put in good working order, he would
retire, and ask for no other reward but a
small annuity, to be paid to himself or his
widow.

Poterat and his invention were held in
high esteem by the minister's advisers, so
his own application was favourably con-
sidered, so far at least as it concerned the
sole right of making porcelain for a further
period of twenty years. His mother and
brothers were refused the renewal of the
faience privilege, and warned not to inter-
fere with his patent. Sharp litigations be-
tween the members of his family embittered
the last years of Louis Poterat's life. He

119

The Rouen 'Porcelain

had long been in shattered health, when, in
1696, he died, being only fifty-five years
of age. The business passed into the hands
of his widow, Madeleine de Laval, who
continued with success the manufacture
of faience, but gave up completely the un-
profitable making of porcelain. Thisvolun-
tary abandonment of an important portion
of her husband's legacy was to be, years
after, taken advantage of by the heirs of
Pierre Chicanneau, of Saint-Cloud, when
they applied for a privilege by which the
exclusive right of manufacturing porcelain
should be transferred to them. The claims
of Poterat's widow could not, however, be
altogether ignored ; the Chicanneaus were
granted in 1702 a licence for establishing a
protected porcelain manufactory in any
town of the kingdom they might like to
choose, the city of Rouen being excepted.

Here a few words concerning the origin
of the Saint-Cloud factory will not be found
out of place. Such authenticated examples
as we possess of the Rouen porcelain have
made us aware that it is not through the
nature of the paste and glaze or the style
of decoration that it can be distinguished
from that made at Saint-Cloud ; between the
two we see a puzzling similarity. The
most natural conclusion that presents itself
to our mind is that a direct connexion exists
between the two productions. It cannot be
the fruit of mere coincidence, nor of a
rediscovery of complicated recipes.

If the probable filiation cannot be es-
tablished by material evidence, recourse
must be had to hypothesis. For instance,
it is not impossible that Pierre Chican-
neau, the founder of the Saint-Cloud fac-
tory, should have obtained possession of
the impenetrable secrets from Poterat him-
self. The name of one Chicanneau appear-
ing on the roll of the Rouen faience
painters of that period goes far to show
that the family were not strangers to the
pottery trade of the town. That the
maker of the early Saint-Cloud faience

120

had received his training from the Norman
potters is plainly suggested by the unmis-
takable imitation of the Rouen patterns ; a
community of interest may have arisen
between two men inhabiting the same
town and engaged in the same craft. We
must bear in mind that at the time when
Chicanneau, full of hope and activity, was
starting his carefully-planned establish-
ment, Poterat, ill and disheartened, knew
well that the end was fast approaching,
and that it was too late for him ever to reap
the reward of his labours. A private ar-
rangement may have been entered into
through which Poterat agreed, in con-
sideration of a substantial sum of money, to
instruct Chicanneau in the mystery of por-
celain-making, but without parting from
his newly extended privilege, which would
thus remain his own property and that of
his heirs after him. In this manner Chican-
neau may have been placed in the position
of producing, without further trouble, a
beautiful ware, the secret composition of
which might have been either stolen or
purchased, but not possibly re-invented.
What gives probability to this view of the
matter is that, at an epoch when no inven-
tor would have thought of bringing out a
new kind of manufacture without taking
steps to have it legally protected, Pierre
Chicanneau never applied for a royal privi-
lege, knowing doubtless that it would not
have been granted.

The quantity of porcelain made and dis-
persed by L. Poterat between 1673 and
1694 may not have been inconsiderable,
even if one accepts his statements that he
would never have any assistance, and that
he performed every part of the work with
his own hands. Many causes unite to
bring to untimely destruction the finest
productions of the fictile art ; in the present
case very few authenticated examples have
come down to us. They consist chiefly in
domestic ware, and are suggestive of cur-
rent manufacture rather than of the occa-

JAR

t*«

■mm

m *L *& .JA*i

1 -A< l Y

■ /

BY KIND PERMISSION OF MONSIEUR A. MILET

PORCELAIN IN BLUE
AM) WHITE

sional making of odd pieces exhibiting a
pretension to exceptional workmanship.

Andre Pottier never had the proud satis-
faction of seeing his belief in the existence
of the Rouen porcelain substantiated by
the discovery of tangible evidence ; he died
before the first examples of the kind were
duly recognized. It was in the old city
itself that the pottery collectors, eagerly
on the look out, one day came across a few
small vessels of translucid ware that pro-
mised to throw some light on the matter,
for they bore the identical patterns seen on
the current Rouen faience. This alone
could not, of course, be accepted as a con-
vincing testimony of local origin ; it was
not to be denied that a frequent use of the
same style of ornamentation was made on
the early productions of Saint-Cloud. How-
ever, the tables were turned against the
incredulous when fragments of porcelain
were dug up from the site of L. Poterat's
old works. One of the refuse heaps formed
by the accumulation of the broken and
half-molten mass of residues which had to
be cleared out of the oven, after a disas-
trous firing, had obviously been struck by
the pick of the excavator. Every fragment
which had preserved something of its
original shape and colour was carefully
gathered. Most of these fragments also
showed the same faience patterns noticed
on the small vessels in the hands of the
collectors. A few of them were truly in-
valuable. The opaque scarlet red, so char-
acteristic of the Rouen fai'ence,and unknown
to all other fai'enciers of the period, was
freely introduced in the decoration of salt-
cellars, knife-hafts, and other small articles.
Nowhere else but at Rouen could we find
this peculiar red applied to porcelain
painting.

A mark is of rare occurrence, but, how-
ever, not always diffident. The monogram
A P, roughly traced in underglaze blue and
surmounted by the star which figures in
the Poterat coat of arms, may safely be

The Rouen Porcelain

attributed to Rouen, although the signifi-
cation of the first letter has, so far, re-
mained unexplained. Again, conjectures
must be called to the rescue and supply the
lack of direct evidence.

Looking over the Poterat pedigree, given
by Andre Pottier, we learn that Louis had
a younger sister named Anne. Now, know-
ing as we do the objection the potter had to
associate any operative to his making of
porcelain, and also that in the old faience
works the female members of the master's
family took an active part in the carrying
on of the trade, it has occurred to me that
the inventor may have entrusted the simple
decoration of his precious ware to a clever
sister. I fondly imagine that in the letters
A P I see the initials of the painter's name :
Anne Poterat.

The unique collection of Rouen porce-
lain which had been formed by the late
Gustave Gouellain, a collector of the true
stamp, is unfortunately dispersed. I had
the advantage of visiting it during the
possessor's lifetime. It comprised about a
score of telling specimens, all discovered in
the city or its immediate surroundings.
Shapes and patterns offered sufficient char-
acter and variety to assist the identification
of any number of controvertible pieces.
A short description of this collection has
been given by M. de Brebisson. Two
jars and two bottles of comparatively large
size, decorated in underglaze blue and other
colours with designs in the Berain taste,
head the list with honour. In blue and
white porcelain, none of the factories of
later time can be said to have produced
anything better than the pieces reproduced
on our plate. Small salt-cellars, drinking
cans, cups and saucers, inkstands and oint-
ment pots, of a style which might make a
superficial examiner attribute them to
Saint-Cloud, completed a most instructive
collection, the like of which may never be
brought together again. The sale cata-
logue of the Dupont Auberville collection,

123

The Rouen ^Porcelain

Paris, 1886, describes seven examples of
the rare ware, also gone now into various
hands.

The Sevres museum is proud of possess-
ing the first authenticated piece. It is a
small toilet pot bearing the arms of the
Norman family Asselin de Villequier. A
mustard pot and a sugar basin decorated
with the well-known patterns of the
Poterats' faience are in the ceramic mu-
seum at Rouen. In the Limoges museum
may be seen a spice-box painted with a
' lambrequin ' pattern and two heavy clock
weights, also decorated in the Rouen style,
and marked A. P. The fragments collected
by Monsieur G. Lebreton, which I was at
one time allowed to examine, are of great
documentary importance.

With the exception of a charming coffee
cup painted with Berain ornaments, in the
possession of Mr. J. H. FitzHenry, and by
him exhibited in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, I do not know that any good
example of Rouen porcelain exists in Eng-
land. But I think it likely that a few
pieces may have drifted into the private col-
lections, where they rest awaiting recog-
nition. I should therefore recommend all

collectors of early French porcelain to sub-
mit their unmarked specimens to special
scrutiny ; it is by no means impossible that,
on further examination, one or more of the
pieces so far attributed to Saint-Cloud,
Lille, Chantilly, or Villeroy may prove to
be the work of the inventor of the porce-
lain of France. It is not yet too late to
institute searches in that direction. Happy
the fortunate man who will make the dis-
covery, for at that moment his hand will
hold, instead of a token of base metal, a
priceless coin of gold.

If a trilogy were to be formed of the
greatest ceramic rarities that a mighty col-
lector should covet and obtain, if possible,
a fine example of Rouen porcelain should
be added to one of the Medicean porcelain
and another of the Henri II faience ; all
three may be considered as equal in interest
and rarity.

Bibliography

Pottier (A.). — ' Origine de la porcelaine d'Eu-
rope. La premiere porcelaine fabriquee en Europe
a ete inventee a Rouen.' Rouen, 1847, 8°.

De Brebisson (R.). — ' La porcelaine Tendre de
Rouen en 1673.' Evreux, 1896, 8°.

Milet (A.). — ' Historique de la faience et de la
porcelaine de Rouen au xvn s siecle.' Rouen,
1898, 8°.

THE LIFE OF A DUTCH ARTIST IN THE SEVENTEENTH

CENTURY
J»*BY DR. W. MARTIN 1 SS*

I__INSTRUCTION

HERE is a type of person
who can look at a Dutch
picture like Rembrandt's
Night Watch, Vermeer's
View of Delft, or Hob-
bema's Avenue at Mid-
delharnis, and surrender
himself completely to aesthetic enjoyment
without puzzling his head over the con-
ditions under which these and similar gems
of Dutch painting of the seventeeth cen-
tury were produced. For such a one
enjoyment suffices, enjoyment varying in
proportion to the subject of the picture,
and the taste and artistic appreciation of
the beholder, from profound reverence to
ecstatic admiration, as he wanders through
a picture gallery or contemplates single
pictures in the peaceful seclusion of a
collector's home.

Anyone who has made himself familiar
in this way with the works of the great
period of Dutch painting, does not need to
know the names or lives of the artists,
still less does he require a book to instruct
him on the subject, and he may very well
leave this article unread.

But the case is different with the amateur
who, besides enjoyment, feels the need of
exploring the forces from whose opera-
tion his enjoyment is derived, and ascer-
taining the circumstances which led to the
production of these masterpieces. ' Who
painted the picture ? ' is then the first
question that rises to his lips. It is
followed by several others ; he must learn
to estimate the personality of the artist by
endeavouring to trace clearly the develop-
ment of his talent ; he must know how
far the man's work was original and pro-
gressive, how far his art was the reflection
of his mind, his environment, his nationality,
his period.

1 Translated by Campbell Hodgson.

IN DRAWING

The satisfaction of this need, supple-
menting purely aesthetic enjoyment by
pleasure of another kind, lies at the bottom
of all methodical art criticism. It has led
many students to examine the state of
civilization with which the development
of Dutch painting in the seventeenth
century was closely connected. What was
the origin of the hundreds, nay thousands,
of pictureswhich wereproduced in Holland
in the short period from about 1620 to
1700 ? What motives, what circumstances,
occasioned their production ? How were
the pictures painted, and for what pur-
pose ? How did their authors live, and
how did they earn their livelihood ?

We do not intend to answer all these ques-
tions in the following pages. The principal
aim of our article is to answer the two last.

For years the notions people formed of
the life of the old Dutch masters were
derived exclusively from the amusing
anecdotes of Houbraken, Weyerman, Van
Gool, and other early writers on art. It is
only in the last few decades that earnest
andsystematic study ofarchivesand pictures
has laid a firmer foundation for our know-
ledge of the conditions under which they
lived. Thus we find it possible to-day to
form some notions on the subject, fairly
clear even if incomplete. A few years ago
I endeavoured in my monograph on
Gerard Dou 2 to put together the scattered
material on the subject, and since then
Dr. Hans Floerke has done a piece of work
that may be called in many respects ex-
haustive in his excellent ' Studien
Niederlandischen Kunst und
schichte.' 3 Hitherto, however, the rich
material in the way of pictures, drawings,
and prints, often affording the most

2 Leyden, 1901. A condensed edition was published by G. Bell
& Sons, London, 1902.

3 Munich and Leipzig, Georg Muller, 1905.

125

zur

Kulturge-

"The Life of a Dutch tArtist

striking illustrations, has been very scantily
published in this connexion, so that I was
glad when the Editors of The Burlington
Magazine gave me another opportunity
of summarizing the chief points in a series
of articles illustrated by select reproduc-
tions of a characteristic kind.

On the surface it may seem as if the
situation of a painter at that time was not
so very different from what it is at the
present day. The would-be artist goes to a
teacher, goes through a course of training,
and then sets up as an independent master,
tries to sell his pictures as well as he can,
and lives, according to his means, in ease or
poverty. So it is to-day, so it was three
hundred years ago in Holland. On the
whole, that is true ; but if one compares
the state of things more exactly, differ-
ences of many kinds become evident : the
relation of pupil to teacher, the status of
the two in the eyes of the law, the right
of ownership in pictures, and the power to
sell them — all these things differed as much
from modern usage as modern colouring
and technique differ from those of the
seventeenth century.

In order to view these differences more
closely, we will try to reconstruct the life
of a painter of that time from the sources
accessible to us. We will first deal with
the question, how a youth of that time
received a painter's education, how he set
up as a master, and what his studio was
like. Then we will see how he sold his
pictures, and lastly, in connexion with
the trade in works of art, consider their
ultimate destination.

The Dutch boy — we can hardly call
him a youth — who meant to devote him-
self to painting practised drawing in the
first instance. He was generally sent —
often at the age of ten or twelve — to a
drawing master or painter, who properly
grounded him in the art of drawing.
Carel van Mander, the well-known painter
and author, and the earliest historian of

126

art in the Netherlands, emphasizes the
desirability of such preliminary instruction
in verses, of little poetical merit, but in-
teresting for their contents, printed at the
beginning of his book on painters, pub-
lished in 1604. In this poem on 'the
foundations of the noble and liberal art of
painting,' Van Mander declares that the
beginner must first seek ' a good master,'
in order that he may learn properly to
compose, sketch, shade, and work up
neatly, ' first with charcoal, then with
chalk or pen.' The pupil has also to learn
neatness in ' doezelen ' (stump drawing).

With this object the master first made his
pupil copy all sorts of prints and drawings.
Then came — just as it does at the present
time — drawing from the plaster cast, a
method which was usual in the Nether-
lands, even in the sixteenth century. How
they drew from the cast we learn, for in-
stance, from the celebrated Dutch poet
and statesman Constantyn Huyghens, who
learnt drawing from 1629 to 1631 from the
painter Hendrick Hondius, and describes
his instruction in the following words :

Hondius corporis humani membra . . . suis
dimensionibus singula et maiusculo volumine
efformanda dabat.

' Human limbs in plaster were to be
drawn the size of life and also on a larger
scale.' Samuel van Hoogstraten, again, at
a later date, 1678, speaks in his 'Inleyding
tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst '
of ' eyes, noses, mouths, ears, and various
faces,' as well as engravings, as instruments
for the instruction of youth in drawing.

The inventories of the effects left by
Dutch painters at their decease also give
us the clearest information on this point.
Rembrandt, for instance, possessed a great
quantity of plaster casts for this purpose.
In the inventory of his possessions taken
in July 1 656 we find a considerable number
mentioned, such as naked children, a sleep-
ing child, casts from antique Greek sculp-
tures, and many casts from life, including

one of a negro. Then there was a whole
basketful of plaster heads, and finally, in
two of the little rooms in which he made
his pupils work apart from one another,
' 17 hands and arms, moulded from life' and
' a great quantity of hands and faces, moulded
from life.' Evidently Rembrandt used all
these things in teaching. He proves it him-
self in one of his etchings, here reproduced,*
which shows a young pupil engaged in
drawing by candlelight from a plaster bust.

Our two following illustrations 4 are also
instructive in this connexion. The first
is from an engraving by Brichet from a
picture by Gabriel Metzu in the Poullain
cabinet. The picture, whose present
whereabouts I do not know, represents a
female artist drawing from a cast. No
further explanation is required. The second
illustration reproduces a well-known print
by Wallerant Vaillant, a young pupil in
the corner of a studio, in which among
other things a plaster figure of a boy and
some plaster heads are to be seen.

The paintings of the Dutch school afford
several other instances of the use of plaster
casts for instruction in drawing. We will
not here enumerate all the etchings and
pictures of Ostade, Schalcken, Dou, Frans
van Mieris, etc., which prove this fact,
but will only refer to two very character-
istic examples. Both are pictures by the
painter-etcher Michiel Sweerts, who lived
about 1650. The first belonged a few
years ago to a London dealer. It repre-
sents a painter's studio in which plaster
casts are present in great numbers. Un-
fortunately we cannot publish the picture
here. The second painting by Sweerts is
still more interesting. It was bought a few
years ago for the Rijksmuseum at Am-
sterdam, and is published here for the first
time. 5 A spacious studio is represented, in
which several very youthful artists are
employed. In the foreground on the left

4 Plate I, page 129.

s Plate II, page 131. I am indebted for the photograph to Jhr.
van Riemsdjik, Director of the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam.

The Life of a Dutch Artist

one of them is engaged in drawing from a
large anatomical plaster model, which is
set up in the middle of the studio. Two
youths watch him at his work. Farther
back another is painting from the nude
living model, whilst a third, more in the
middle at the back, is drawing from a
plaster cast of the well-known head of the
Ludovisi Juno. A whole heap of other
casts, mostly from the antique, occupies
the right half of the foreground.

This picture shows us most clearly the
various stages of instruction: simple draw-
ing from the cast, drawing from anatomical
figures in plaster, and drawing from life.
Anatomical plaster figures — or 'flayed
plaster casts,' as an artist of the period calls
them — were indispensable for the study of
anatomy, to which the young pupil had to
devote himself seriously after the primary
instruction in drawing. Anatomical study
was no easy matter in those days. It was
unlawful till 1555 to dissect corpses in the
Netherlands, and then permission was only
granted in respect of malefactors of the
male sex. 6 How difficult it was to obtain
permission to draw from a corpse, we see
from the story told by Carel van Mander
in 1604 of the painter Aert Mytens, who
went himself to cut down a body from the
gallows for the purpose of study, and took
it home with him in a sack. Even at a
later date it was difficult to draw from a
dead body. In 1641 the painter Philips
Angel complains that there is no opportu-
nity of doing so in the town of Leyden.
They had recourse, therefore, to anatomical
plaster casts (as in the picture by Sweerts
described above) or to illustrations in the
handbooks which soon began to appear in
Holland in considerable numbers.

Along with this anatomical knowledge
students were also grounded in the theory of
perspective, especially according to the prin-
ciples of Diirer's well-known book, which
was much used in Dutch translations, as

6 The date of the first dissection of a woman is 1720.

1 27

The Life of a Dutch Artist

we learn by the inventories of painters'
effects. The books on perspective by
Abraham Bosse and Hendrick Hondius
were also popular with students.

At a later date more and more handbooks
on perspective and anatomy were written
for the Dutch painters, which soon de-
generated into a sort of recipe books for
painting, in which it is exactly described
how this or that theme is to be represented,
how colours are to be ground and how
used, and so forth. It is worth noticing
that the number of these books grows with
the increasing decadence of Dutch paint-
ing. The best known books, by Goeree,
de Pas, Hoogstraten, and Lairesse, did not
appear till after 1660.

In the first half of the seventeenth cen-
tury books were of second-rate importance
to the student of painting. The time
was still remote in which the effort of
painting was to beautify nature by aesthetic
rules, a time which thought the worse of
Rembrandt for choosing a Dutch washer-
woman as model for a Venus, and putting her
in a picture straight from nature, without
beautifying her in the least. 7 Dutch pupils
were not vexed with such academic obser-
vations in the first half of the seventeenth
century, unless they were in the studio of
some academic painter of the school of
Goltzius or Bloemaert. The Dutch realists
were of quite a different way of thinking.
They did not go in for philosophy, still less
did they point to Raphael and Michelangelo
as the only painters worth imitating ; but
they were for ever impressing on their
pupils a deep love of nature as she is. The
precept, ' Look at nature and imitate her,'
takes precedence of all others throughout
the flourishing period of Dutch painting.
The pupil, accordingly, as soon as he ac-
quired a certain sureness of hand, was con-
fronted with nature herself. Whether he
was given fruit or still-life to draw, no pic-
ture or other source of information tells us.

7 Poem by Andries Pels, quoted by Houbraken, i. 268
128

So far, therefore, we know little about
drawing from nature. So much, however,
is clear, that even then the young artist
was confronted as early as possible with
the chief representative of nature, the liv-
ing man. He had first and foremost to
draw from the living model.

It is Michiel Sweerts again who has left
us a vivid description of a drawing lesson
of that date from the living model in a
picture at the townhall of Haarlem, repro-
duced here. 8 In a large room the male
model stands on a raised platform round
which numerous lads, aged from ten to
fifteen, sit in a circle. On the right one is
hard at work, on the left another passes a
sheet of drawing-paper to a comrade, and
another fair-haired boy in the middle stops
for a moment. The master, talking to a
gentleman, stands at the back of the room,
seen from the back pointing to his pupils.

It is a picture full of life and freshness,
which has no equal in bringing before our
eyes a drawing lesson from the nude model
in the seventeenth century. We are struck
with the youthfulness of these incipient
artists, whose names, unfortunately, are not
known, for the old hypothesis which took
them for pupils of Frans Hals is untenable.
How glad we should be to learn their
names ! Then the picture would be a still
better illustration of those past times in
which many a one resolved, even in boy-
hood, to dedicate his life to art. Most of
our greatest painters went to a master for
instruction at the age of ten to fifteen, as
we can see from the dates of their lives.
They often needed five to ten years of ener-
getic work and preparation before they got
so far as to be allowed to set up as inde-
pendent masters and members of a painters'
guild, and were permitted to sell their
pictures. We shall deal with this further
period of the development of a Dutch
painter in a subsequent article.

8 Plate II, page 131.

{To be continued.)

PUPIL DRAWING H;o\1 PLASTER BY CANDLELIGHT;
ETCHING BY REMBRANDT

WOMAN DKA

AFTER GABRIEL METZU

WING
VAILLANT

i'l Ml. I

PUPILS DRAWING AND PAINTING I RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM

THE DRAWING SCHOOL; MUNICIPAL MUSEUM, HAA

PLATE 11. PA1

MICHAEL SV. I

THE FATHER OF PERUGIAN PAINTING
J3* BY EDWARD HUTTON Jar*

OT the least delightful
lamong the early Umbrian
painters so scrupulously
concerned with religion
and the beauty of reli-
gious meditation, Bene-
detto Bonfigli would seem to have been
born in Perugia about the year 1420, some
seven years before the death of Gentile da
Fabriano. A painter of but little import-
ance, we may think — concerned not so
much with Art as with the representation of
religious truths ; and, almost by chance, a
kind of historical painter in the Cappella
dei Priori, where he has painted so lan-
guidly, and yet with a certain sweetness,
at least in the early frescoes, the story of
the city as it had come down to him : the
wonderfully heroic actions of S. Ercolano,
his life, his death, and all the wonders of
that distant past. But as the master of
Perugino, as the only visible founder of
that school of Perugia which became so
famous, which has been so beloved, Bonfigli
appears to us as a painter of more import-
ance than his weak but charming work at
first suggests.

Though he seems in his day to have
travelled so far as Rome and Siena, it is
really only in Perugia that we find his
work. Mr. Berenson mentions an early
picture in a private collection in London,
and he is represented in Berlin and in the
Opera del Duomo at Empoli ; but beyond
these three pictures all his work is still in
his native city, in the Pinacoteca for the
most part, with here and there a standard
or a panel in the churches, which have
rendered their treasures to the municipal
authorities, one may believe, not without
a certain sadness.

The pupil, perhaps, of Boccatis, who
was working from about 1436, it is really
a glimmer, faint and evanescent, of Floren-
tine genius that we see in his work, the
influence of Fra Angelico and Benozzo

Gozzoli, and it may be of Fra Lippo
Lippi. On those soft Umbrian hills the two
former have left not a little of their work,
and in Perugia herself there are still some
of their paintings, very carefully made on
a prepared canvas covered with stucco and
laid on wood; not the least interesting of
their works, seeing that they are unrestored.
And at Spoleto, at the head of that long
valley, Fra Lippo Lippi produced the most
splendid of all his works, the frescoes in
the apse of the Duomo, where we may see
even to-day the Annunciation, and the
Adoration of the Shepherds, and the Ma-
donna crowned by her Son, very tender and
strong with vitality, so characteristic of Fra
Lippo, who must surely have influenced the
mystical painters of the surrounding cities
very strongly. But even so early as 1454,
when Bonfigli was at work on the frescoes
of the Cappella dei Priori, we hear of Fra
Filippo as one whom the Perugians would
have liked to engage to paint their chapel,
and in 1461 he comes himself to judge of
the work done there, and praises it. Con-
sider, too, the Madonna of the Frate, now
in the UfHzi, how blonde she is, how deli-
cate and full of grace her fine, modelled
features ; the small soft chin and wide
brow are pure and fair as a bright lily
before any hand has touched it. And then
look at Bonfigli's Adoration, and it might
seem that her younger sister held the Child
while the three kings came with their gifts
to greet Him. Her hair falls in little
golden curls over her temples that are deli-
cate and almost transparent in their fine-
ness ; the dainty lace work, that has fallen
in so many folds, hardly covers her hair or
her slender throat. Her wide brow and
the delicate, arched brows that we find in
so many fifteenth-century paintings are
characteristic of her, certainly the first of
her race in Umbria.

Another painter beside Fra Filippo was
named in the contract for the Priors'

133

The Father of T^erugian Tainting

Chapel of 1454, to wit, Domenico Vene-
ziano, the master of Piero della Francesca.
That somewhat vague personality moves
behind the work of more than one Um-
brian, and we find him perhaps here too,
in a certain uncouth vigour and robustness
so manifest in Bonfigli's Bambini. But,
after all, Bonfigli's masters must, as it seems
to me, for ever remain unknown ; the
documents are silent, and what gossip of the
time we possess would appear to be mis-
leading. In the Adoration in the Pinaco-
teca at Perugia we find at least a new per-
sonality in Umbrian art. The drawing is
very weak, the whole picture really just a
chance or almost accidental combination of
colours on the wall, refined upon by an
unconscious artist who was anxious about
nothing save the story he was telling with a
certain peevishness, a certain impatience.
Mark how unamiable she is — that strange
country virgin. There is almost the shadow
of a frown between the pure brows, and
those three emaciated child angels — how
sorrowful they are, how mechanically they
assume the attitude of prayer ! And in that
far country across the curious hills that divide
us — is it from Bethlehem ? — a great army
seems to be moving, rushing out of the
gates of a city with champing of horses and
bright armour and spears, and all the splen-
dour of the eve of battle. Never again, as
I think, is Bonfigli quite so uninitiated, so
naive in his workmanship ; but even here in
this picture, which I suppose, perhaps with-
out sufficient reason, to have been among
his earliest work, he has not forgotten to
crown his angels with those strange wreaths
of roses, so artificial, so obviously grown in
heaven, that we see in all his work.

The frescoes in the Cappella dei Priori,
begun in 1454 and unfinished at his death
in 1496, would seem, since he worked at
them so languidly, so intermittently, to
have been distasteful to him. That fresco
which begins the series, in which we see St.
Louis of Toulouse standing before the Pope,

134

is, to my mind at least, easily the best. Was
it perhaps after seeing this fresco that Fra
Lippo Lippi in 1461 recommended that
Bonfigli should paint the whole chapel?
One might almost think so. And yet in
the fresco where St. Louis lies dead, sur-
rounded by monks in a church which is
really S. Pietro in Perugia, how lovely is
that figure of the kneeling youth who, un-
conscious of anything but the dead saint,
seems to be weeping so passionately !

In 1460 Bonfigli is said to have been in
Siena, and later still in Rome, painting in
the company of the young Pinturicchio. 1
That visit to Siena, even though it were his
first, and remembering his work I cannot
think it, seems to have been of some im-
portance to him ; a new spirit comes into
his work, a desire for beauty not divorced
from religion, but as the handmaid of it, as
a kind of realization of that song of the
beauty of holiness. Something of this we
see, perhaps, in the picture of the Annuncia-
tion in the Pinacoteca. 2 Madonna, a little
tearful, kneels on a stool of beautiful work-
manship, her eyes just lifted from the book
of prayers which she holds in her hand,
gazing at nothing. The Angel, dressed in
fantastic fashion, almost ridiculous, speaks
his message, while between him and
Madonna, writing the words which the
angel speaks, St. Luke sits on his ox, be-
tween whose legs is a copy of the gospel.
From the Eternal in the heavens the Holy
Spirit as a Dove descends with a great
swiftness, making a passage of light in the
soft air. Four child angels, one of a real
and natural beauty, with outstretched hands,
watch the work of God. Madonna is
kneeling just outside the magnificent por-
tico of some palace in a kind of courtyard,
over the rich walls of which we see the
tops of the cypresses and the mountains.
Above is a loggia with carved and splendid
pillars. It is perhaps in the frieze of the

1 Brousolle, ' Pelerinages Ombriens,' Paris, 1896.
s Reproduced, page 135.

5 fc

'The Father of ^Peruvian Tainting

wall whereon Bonfigli has painted a sump-
tuous sort of carving that we find our first
surprise; and then something of a larger
world seems to have come into the picture
with the impersonal detached figure or
St. Luke, who so calmly, almost with a
smile, writes the unforgettable words. How
strange is this dream of the Annunciation !
And, indeed, long after we have forgotten
the mere strangeness of an idea so natural
perhaps to mystical Umbria, we remember
that soft, delicate Madonna with the peev-
ish lips and the delicate temples. It is said,
I know not with how much truth, that in
the Adoration Bonfigli has introduced the
portraits of his sister as the Madonna, his
nephew as the Child, and his brother as the
youngest of the three kings. It may be so ;
but it is another woman, younger and more
charming, who is so distracted by the mes-
sage of the angel amid all the beauty of that
Renaissance palace in the Annunciation, and
who prays with so much simplicity and
sweetness in perhaps the most beautiful
picture of all his work — a Madonna and
Child, much damaged, and yet retaining
something of the memory of Fra Angelico
in its simplicity, its spirituality. Who was
she that was so unhappy, a little wilfully we
may think perhaps, her fortune being so
splendid? We shall never know. Fra
Filippo had painted in his pictures over and
over again the woman he loved. It may be
indeed that Bonfigli did so too. How
peevish she is, how discontented, how de-
lightfully unhappy. Was she perhaps his
wife who quarrelled with him so that their
differences have been noted in the public
records,or was she just a vision that even to-
day, if we are fortunate, we may chance to
see in that very city, something so delicate
and wonderful and altogether lovely that for
ever after that fierce, rude city seems to have
been changed for us: living ever after in
the memory as some place almost out of the
world, so that in thinking of her all the
tumult of our life is hushed, and the soul

itself silent in order that all our dreams and
visions may come to her and be touched by
her delicate hands and made perfect ? For
her voice is as the sound of distant waters,
and our thirsty days are ended in a moment
when she speaks; her eyes have looked at
heaven and remembered the stars, and
the sun has lingered in the coils of her
hair, and her hands are softer than the
bright lilies which will reconcile us with
death at the last. I cannot forget the sound
of her footsteps or the folds of her dress, and
the gesture of her hands is a perpetual
benediction. Ah, how I have envied those
she is even now making so happy, for where
she is one might say God smiled. At home
in winter, when the world is hushed by the
fall of the snow, and the eartli made pure
again from heaven, I have seemed to see her
coming, delicate and altogether precious,
across the spotless fields, her golden hair
trailing in the night like a shower of stars,
her little feet whiter than the blossoms of
the snow. And when my spirit was perhaps
stooping under my life, was it not her eyes
that looked on me and refreshed me, and
tenderly lifted up my soul, and ever since
has she not held it softly in her hands ? And
I know, as I know the sureness of the stars,
that she will not let it fall.

Those banners which Bonfigli painted to
be carried in procession, one ot which, the
Gonfalone di S. Bernardino, 3 is now in the
Pinacoteca, are almost peculiar to the Um-
brian school. Another of these strange
painted canticles is in S. Fiorenzo, and yet
another in S. Maria Nuova. The one in the
Pinacoteca is, however, not the least
curious. Above sits the great figure of
Christ surrounded by angels, while below
are gathered the priests and people of
Perugia in front of the Oratorio di S. Ber-
nardino and the church of S. Francesco, in-
tent on some ritual or service. Between
our Lord and the people, St. Bernardine
himself stands, listening to the words of

8 Reproduced, page 135.

137

The Father of Perugian 'Painting

Christ. It is evidently a portrait of the
saint ; the lean, emaciated face is stilled in
a kind of mystical contemplation. The
terrible emotion of the orator from whose
lips fell words not of love only, but of
burning scorn and terrifying denunciation,
is hushed. His whole figure is burning
with a kind of ecstasy, he seems like a
flame almost, motionless in heaven. It is
said that the people gathered together
outside the Oratorio di S. Bernardino are
busied with the ceremony of the blessing
of the candles by Pope Pius II, which
happened in 1489. However this may
be, surely one of those women who stand
so unconcerned in the corner of the picture
is the Madonna of the Annunciation ? Pale
and graceful she stands still a little unhappy,
while before her a nun kneels in passionate
prayer ; yet she is so indifferent that she
has almost let her candle fall.

The banner of S. Maria Nuova is less
beautiful, and it may be from another
hand. Christ between the sun and moon
surrounded by saints and martyrs threatens
the people of Perugia with an arrow,
while death mows them down with a
scythe. The saints appear to be interced-
ing. At S. Fiorenzo there is another
banner, also commemorating some pesti-
lence ; a long inscription in verse upheld
by an angel prophesies to them in the
manner of Jeremiah. In Corciano there
is another, and indeed the list of those
ascribed to Bonfigli is long. It is in these
banners that Bonfigli really ceases to be an
artist, and becomes a mere agent of the
Church. Certainly, with the possible ex-
ception of the one in the Pinacoteca, they

can make no claim to beauty. It is not
in them that we shall find the master
of Perugino, but in those pictures, a
little bitter and yet sweet withal, which
have been gathered together from many
places into the Pinacoteca. Without the
passion and the profound sense of beauty
which Niccolo da Foligno possessed, and
which make him so interesting a pupil of
Benozzo Gozzoli, Bonfigli yet contrived
to give his pictures that suggestion —
though it is scarcely anything more than a
suggestion — of sentiment and charm which
in Perugino came at last to be so loved,
which seems to us at times so sickly, so in-
sincere. Sometimes his angels are really
beautiful, more often they are peevish and
unhappy, with a kind of childish grief
that looks almost like a simper on their old
young faces. As an historical painter, or,
rather, as a painter of tradition, he was un-
successful, evidently feeling himself incap-
able of telling a story or composing in the
larger way of Gozzoli. And yet there is
something golden in his work, something
of the soft beauty of his birthplace, that
Perugino was to turn to such good account.
In thinking of him one might almost say
that his chief fault was that he learnt so
little from Piero della Francesca or the
Florentines. The father of Perugian paint-
ing, he gives but the faintest clue to the
work of Perugino or Pinturicchio, and
though he was born in the fifteenth cen-
tury, it is rather as a kind of ' primitive '
we come to regard him, indifferent
alike to art and to life, occupied as he
was as a craftsman in the service of the
Church.

Notes, plate i. the annunciation,
by roger de la pasture, in
the collection of the late
m. rodolphe kann ; formerly in
the ashburnham collection.

J8r» MISCELLANEOUS NOTES J&

THE ANNUNCIATION

BY ROGER DE LA PASTURE

HE picture here reproduced '
is the finest of the early
Netherlandish paintings for-
merly in the collection of the
earl of Ashburnham at Ash-
burnham Place, where I first
saw it in May 1878. It has
since, like so many other of
our art treasures, left this
country, and is now in the fine collection formed
by the late Mr. Rudolph Kann. It belongs to the
best period of the master, and bears considerable
resemblance to the same subject on the shutter of
the triptych formerly in St. Columba's church at
Cologne and now in the Munich Gallery. There
is, however, a notable difference : the master has
here represented the angel as just greeting the
Virgin, who turns towards him ; but he has not
delivered his message, and therefore the Holy Dove
is not represented, whereas in the Munich panel
the later and more usual incident has been chosen ;
Mary has replied, ' Be it done unto me according
to thy word,' and the Holy Dove is descending
towards her.

The pose of the Virgin's head is here slightly
different, but her right arm and hand and the
drapery of her dress are almost identical in treat-
ment ; the bed in the background and the flower
vase are also alike, except that the body of the
latter, plain in the Munich picture, is here adorned
with a. spiral molding. The angel here, instead
of a white mantle, wears over his apparelled alb a
tunic of crimson and gold velvet brocade. In the
background is a bench with cushions, and above
it a two-light round-arched window looking out
on a flower garden with a crenellated wall and a
gatehouse, towards the half-open door of which
Joseph is walking, staff in hand, while a woman
is looking at the plants in the raised flower-beds.
The day is drawing to a close, but the twilight is
still clear and bright. Mary has, however, already
provided herself with a lighted taper which she
holds in her left hand resting on her prayer-book.
In the upper part of the window, glazed with
lozenges, is an escucheon charged with the arms
of the Burgundian family of Clugny azure, two
keys in pale addorsed or, repeated in the circular
compartments of the carpet beneath the Virgin's
feet. I have not been able to discover for what
member of the family this work was painted, but
it is almost certain that it was either for Ferry,
who became chancellor of the order of the Golden
Fleece, and was consecrated bishop of Tournay
in 1474 and made cardinal in 1480, or his brother
William, who was in 1479 translated from the see
of Terouanne to that of Poitiers, and most prob-
ably for the former, whose love of art is evidenced
1 Plate I, page 140.

by his Missal preserved in the library of Siena
and his Pontifical now in the possession of the
Marquess of Bute. W. H. James Weale.

A TAPESTRY OF MARTIN OF ARAGON
AND MARIA DE LUNA

The exhibition of the Hardwick Hall hunting
tapestries, at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
during 1903-04, was instrumental in bringing into
notice a style of tapestry which, until then, had
been the object of little attention even from those
specially interested in the art. In the discussion
which ensued, interesting divergences of opinion
were manifested as to the origin of these hangings,
but the verdict as to date was almost unanimous.
The second quarter of the fifteenth century was
recognized as the period of their fabrication by the
most competent critics. In which direction this
date can be extended with a view to discovering the
chronological limits within which so important a
style of tapestry was produced, will, of course, be
seen from the examination of other specimens as
they come to light, and from this the identifica-
tion of the atelier may also result.

Meanwhile another tapestry which came into
the market recently at Paris ■ bears upon it evi-
dence placing its date beyond question. This
piece, which is enriched with gold and silver
thread, is apparently an altar-frontal (height
82 cent. X 2 m. 30 length); it depicts St. John
the Baptist standing upon the bank of a lake or
stream, between, on his right, St. Martin of
Tours, 3 and St. Hugh of Grenoble,' to his left.
Above St. John's left shoulder — he is clad in a
hooded-mantle, and an under-vest of goat-skin —
is represented the Lamb, to which the saint
points, with a scroll inscribed ' Ecce agnus dei.'
St. Martin wears mitre and cope; St. Hugh,
mitred, is in the Carthusian habit. Each bishop is
in the act of blessing, and holds in his left hand a
crosier, with veil. The background is filled with
dense foliage, and a number of birds disport
themselves in it and around the figures. A glance
at the illustration accompanying this note will
reveal the general identity in design and similarity
in treatment of many details of this tapestry with
those in the Hardwick Hall hangings — the foliage,
the patched sky, the flowers, bird life, and water
in the foreground.

What render the piece specially important are
four shields which hang from tree-trunks in the
background. On either side of St. Martin, the
shields bear two pallets, and on either side of St.
Hugh they bear the same two pallets impaling
a crescent verse' and a champagne, these chequy.

2 At the sale of the Guilhou collection ; it now belongs to
Monsieur Jacques Seligmann, to whom we are indebted for
permission to reproduce it. (Plate II, page 143.)

8 ' SS. Martin ' is the inscription beneath the figure.

* ' S. Hugo,' but the letters are almost obliterated in the
reproduction. To the bishop of Grenoble (1080-1132), the first
Carthusians owed their settlement at the Grande-Chartreuse,
mother and governing-house of the order.

M I4I

*A Tapestry of Martin of dragon

The latter, the arms of the Aragonese Lunas,
were thus impaled with two pallets of her hus-
band's arms by Maria de Luna, wife of Martin,
king of Aragon. Upon the other two shields
the Aragonese pallets of King Martin are again
depicted. 6 Martin married his first wife, Maria
de Luna, in 1372, and succeeded to the crown in
1397 ; after his consort's demise in 1407, Martin
remarried in 1409, and died, the last king of his
line, in 1410. The date of the tapestry is there-
fore before 1409, or (as Martin's arms are depicted
without the brisure of a younger son) between
1397-1407.

It would be interesting, were it possible, to
trace the frontal in an inventory of the period.
Although it is known that tapestries (panos de raz)
adorned the walls of the Aljaferia, or royal palace
at Saragossa, at Martin's coronation in 1398, 6 the
limited series of published Spanish inventories
offers none in which this particular tapestry might
be supposed to figure, and King Martin's great
inventory remains a manuscript in the Archives
of Aragon, at Barcelona. On the other hand, the
significance of the combination of the monarch's
and his consort's insignia with representations of
his name-patron, St. Martin, and of St. Hugh
of Grenoble, a beatified Carthusian, should not be
lost sight of. The Carthusians owed their intro-
duction into Spain, in 1163, to the Aragonese
Alfonso II, and King Martin, a descendant of the
latter, was not less favourable to the order than
any of his predecessors. Than one Carthusian
establishment, the Val de Cristo, near Segorbe,
in the kingdom of Valencia, no religious com-
munity stood in closer personal relation to that
monarch. Founded in 1386 by him and by his
father, Pedro IV, Martin added to it a church,
dedicated to St. Martin, and consecrated in 1401. 7
The adjacent lordship of Segorbe had accrued to
Martin on his marriage with Maria, the daughter
of a count of Luna, and lord of Segorbe, in 1372.
The charterhouse of Val de Cristo was, therefore,
closely connected with both Aragonese sovereigns
whose arms figure on the tapestry, before and
after their accession. The earlier of the apparent
dates, 1397-1407, would of course be anticipated
by a few years if the central figure of the Baptist
depicts the patron of Martin's elder brother
King John I (1387-97), during whose reign the
frontal may have been designed, as it appears to
have been, for the Carthusian monastery.

A. V. de P.

The technique shown in this altar-frontal is
different from that of existing tapestries of the

5 Or four pallets gules should be depicted here, but the
designer has accepted as Martin's arras the dimidiated or
halved coat 6guring in the queen's achievement. The shield-
shapes chosen are habitually used in N. Spanish armorial
seals of the period.

• G. de Blancas ' Coronaciones de los reyes de Aragon,' 1641.

7 J. L. Villanueva ' Viaje literario a las iglesias de Espana,' iv.
1806. Sequestrated in 1835, the Val de Cristo is now a ruin.

early French school. In these, clouds are repre-
sented by conventional forms of ribbon shape ;
here the clouds, more in accordance with nature,
are disposed in layers. The foliage is rendered
in mass, with little or no outline ; the water is
rippled, suggesting the motion of the water-fowl —
a treatment that exists to some extent in the otter-
pool of the Hardwick hunting tapestries.

The small dimensions of the altar-frontal of
King Martin would permit of its being woven in
the house of the client who ordered it. A parallel
is found in the case of the ' Coronations ' of the
Cathedral of Sens, woven in all probability for
Tristan de Salazar, by Allardin de Souyn, who
lived in the Paris residence of that prelate. 8 The
texture of both tapestries is very fine, as may be
judged from the amount of detail in the figures in
relation to their size. There are two existing
tapestries which were woven about the same
time as the one under review, viz. the ' Life of
St. Piat and St. Eleuthere,' woven in Arras in
1402, now in the cathedral of Tournai, and a
hanging with portraits of the duke of Orleans
(assassinated 1405) and his wife Valentia
Visconti, which was exhibited at Madrid in
1892-3 by the count of Valencia de Don Juan.
These do not afford comparison with the altar-
frontal of King Martin, which, wrought with gold
and silver thread, is probably the sole repre-
sentative of that class of hangings of the early
fifteenth century ; similar pieces are nearly a
hundred years later in date. W. G. T.

AN UNKNOWN PORTRAIT OF
LORENZO DE' MEDICI 9

This drawing (Louvre, Collection Vallardi No.
2,330) has suffered greatly from rubbing, which
has caused the power of its original accent to dis-
appear. If its attribution thus becomes pliable
to the fancy of theory, it yet is probably not
of Florentine technique ; the medallion-like con-
ception of the head, the wavy intricate treat-
ment of the hair, and even the collection in
which it is embedded, lend colour to the belief
that it belongs to the school of Pisanello. This
seems at first difficult to reconcile with the
identity of such a portrait. But Lorenzo de'
Medici had at eighteen been sent to the courts
of Italy to gain the beginnings of an experience
in statecraft which was to prepare him for the
later practice of authority. The date of the draw-
ing — if, as seems likely, he posed for it while on
this tour, in some city of the north — would thus be
fixed in 1466, which accords with the probable
age of the sitter.

One leaves the ever-dubious ground of hypo-
thesis in examining the identity of the likeness.
The individual characteristics of the face prove
this — especially the deep-set eye, the flattened nose,

* Guiffrey, ' Histoire de la Tapisserie,' p. 136.
9 Reproduced, Plate II, page 143.

I42

PORTRAIT OF LORENZO Ut' MEDICI ; DRAWING IN THE LOUVRE

[

» -'V

■■■■■i

■•■•^■■B

ALTAR-FRONTAL OF FRENCH TAPESTRY MADE FOR MARTIN OF AKAOON AND MARIA DE LUNA, C. I397-I4O7, FORMERLY IN THE GD1LHOD COLLECTION

NOTES, PLATE II

'luuuouuuuyujuuuuuuuu

NOTES, PLATE III. ENGLISH
PORCELAIN AND GLASS RE-
CENTLY PRESENTED TO THE
P.RITISH MUSEUM BY MR.
CHARLES BORRADA1LE

Recent Acquisitions at the British Museum

and the peculiar nostril, in later years to grow more
accentuated, and reminding one that Lorenzo was
deficient in the sense of smell — an advantage, he
averred, since in Italy then, as now, fragrant
odours were the exception. The redeeming feature
in the expression is the look of mcrbidczza — so often
characteristic of quattrocento art and counter-
balancing the hardness of its naturalism — in the
eyes of the youth who had not yet been steeled by
dangers of conspiracy and the struggle for power
which later in life was to make him callous to
friend and enemy.

If Benozzo Gozzoli's fresco of the boy-king on
horseback in the Riccardi chapel is truly Lorenzo,
then only fifteen, the name exists without the
resemblance. Hence the Louvre drawing is prob-
ably his first portrait, and three years earlier than
the medal ascribed to Tanagli, which may well
have been struck in honour of the Magnificent's
marriage to Lucrezia Donati. To this it bears a
considerable resemblance, though in the medal the
jaw has set firmer and the features of the face
have hardened. Lorenzo figures in four other
medals, two of which are by Bertoldo di Giovanni :
the one commemorating the Pazzi conspiracy in
1478, and the other, though considerably smaller,
reproduces with a different inscription the iden-
tical head. Another, and the best of the series, is
the well-known one by Niccolo Fiorentino, a fine
example of which is in the Dutuit collection.
Lastly, there is a small but vigorous single-sided
high-relief medallion in the Dreyfus collection,
where it is unique. This dates from a later period
in his life ; his features have grown extremely ac-
centuated with age. It is probably his last portrait.
The series of portraits of Lorenzo is by no means
so extended as might be desired. If we possess
Ghirlandajo's fresco at Santa Trinita in Florence,
much doubt must exist as to the identification of
the Magnificent in the Adoration of Botticelli.
The glamour of Lorenzo's name has very naturally
attracted attributions of portraiture where the
wish has fathered the thought. There seems to
be no good reason why the bust ascribed to Ver-
rocchio in the Quincey Shaw collection should be
that of Lorenzo, or the charming Rafaellino del
Garbo belonging to Lady Layard in Venice. It
is,, moreover, a curious fact that the best-known
portrait of Lorenzo is by Giorgio Vasari, and falls
of course in a later century.

Lewis Einstein.

RECENT ACQUISITIONS AT THE
BRITISH MUSEUM 10

The British Museum has been particularly fortu-
nate of late in receiving quite a number of impor-
tant additions to the collections of English
porcelain and glass; a rare occurrence in these
days, when the market price of really fine examples
10 See Plate III, page 146

of these wares is beyond the ordinary purchasing
power of the national museum, while the gifts
and bequests of private collectors, naturally
enough, arrive only at considerable intervals. It
is to the liberality and public spirit of Mr. Charles
Borradaile that the chief of the present acquisi-
tions is due, and the pieces he has presented to
the British Museum are precisely of that kind
which Sir A. W. Franks, the originator of the
collection, would have made every effort to secure
for the nation. They are all, in fact, documen-
tarv specimens of high historical interest to the
student of English porcelain. The first (No. 1) is
a ' goat and bee ' milk-jug of familiar type, but on
glancing underneath the incised mark and inscrip-
tion will at once arrest attention. There is one
other published example of a similar piece, which
was formerly in the Russell collection, the inscrip-
tion differing only in lettering and arrangement from
the above ; and these two are the earliest marked
and dated specimens of the porcelain made at our

most noted factory.
By these two pieces
the ownership of the
triangle - mark and
the ' goat and bee'
mould is decided
once for all in favour
of Chelsea,as against
the claims of its rival
Bow. Moreover, the
nature of the earli-
est Chelsea ware
may be read with
certainty in these
milk-jugs ; and the
present example is
composed of a soft
glassy porcelain of
creamy tone, with
lustrous ' satiny '
glaze, highly trans-
n places the walls
Can there be
this beautiful
ware was learnt ? The French alone could
have taught it ; and if, as we have good reason to
suppose, the Chelsea factory was quite recently
established in 1745, we can only conclude that
such complete mastery of technique as the present
piece implies, was due to the guiding hand of some
skilled workman from one of the already mature
factories of St. Cloud, Mennccy, or Chantilly.
The remarkable shape of this little jug is derived,
like so many of the early porcelain models, from
contemporary silver-work. On either side of this
historic specimen is a Bristol porcelain cup (Nos. 2
and 3), an absolutely unique pair. In 1775 they
formed part of the small exhibition of china laid
before the House of Commons by Champion, when
he applied for the renewal of his patent for the

lucent, and so thin that
seem to consist of glaze alone
any doubt where the secret of

Recent Acquisitions at the British Museum

manufacture ot true porcelain. This patent,
taken out by Cookworthy at Plymouth in 1768,
and bought by Champion at Bristol five years
later, protected the use of the china-clay and
china-stone of Cornwall ; but, unfortunately for
Champion, the renewal was stubbornly opposed
by the Staffordshire potters, and was only granted
with such limitations that the manufacture of true
porcelain had to be abandoned in 1781, never to
be revived in this country. Technically, these two
interesting cups and the goat-and-bee jug are as
far apart as the Poles ; the latter is soft-paste, as
soft as the pate tendre of France, while the former
are hard-paste, as refractory as the true porcelain
of China. Under one of them Champion has put
the Meissen mark, the crossed swords in blue, in
token of his admiration of the Saxon porcelain ; but
the decoration, which is entirely gilt, rather recalls
the early Vincennes style. No. 4 is also a speci-
men of hard-paste, finely enamelled with Chinese
vases, monsters, and brocaded designs in pure
famille-verte taste. An inscription in red pigment
under the base no doubt once told its history, but
unfortunately, being unfired, it has worn away,
and nothing can now be read but the date,
November y' 27'*, 1770. We know, however, that
in the early part of that year Cookworthy's factory
was moved from Plymouth to Bristol, where it
continued till 1773 under the title ' W. Cook-
worthy and Co. ' ; and there can be no doubt
that this jug was made at the transplanted Ply-
mouth works, the Chinese decoration being in
accord with the Plymouth traditions. Mr. Borra-
daile's gift includes a Bristol coffee-cup, marked
with a cross between the initials J. H. (probably
for Joseph Hickey) and the date 1774, and ena-
melled with floral festoons in typical Bristol style.
No. 5 is a fine example of Bristol glass, one of a
pair of jars which completes Mr. Borradaile's
liberal donation. It is made of opaque white
' milk glass,' not unlike pate tendre porcelain,
enamelled in bright colours by Michael Edkins,
who, after painting Bristol delft at Frank's factory,
worked for the glass trade, and was employed by
no less than five Bristol firms between the years
1762 and 1787. The present pieces formerly be-
longed to his grandson, William Edkins, from
whom they passed into the Francis Fry collection
and afterwards into Mr. Borradaile's hands. No. 6
brings us back to Chelsea : it is a theatrical figure
in the hybrid costume, partly Georgian and partly
Elizabethan, affected on the stage in the middle of
the eighteenth century. It forms part of a bequest
made to the museum by the late Mr. Lionel van
Oven, including a pair of Chelsea sporting figures,
Derby-Chelsea statuettes of Venus and Justice,
and a Derby figure of Andromache weeping over
Hector's urn. Finally the museum has received
a small bowl painted with country scenes in red
and sepia, and inscribed ' Lane End, 1785 ' ; it is
of rough porcelain, with badly crazed glaze, and

148

is evidently an experimental piece made by
W. and J. Turner, sons and successors of the cele-
brated John Turner of Lane End (now Longton),
Staffordshire. This important witness to an other-
wise unrecorded endeavour was given by Mr. F.
Bennett Goldney, through the National Art Col-
lections Fund. R. L. H.

A MINIATURE BY HEINRICH FRIEDRICH
FUGER, IN THE WALLACE
COLLECTION

The charming miniature here for the first time
reproduced, 11 and provisionally described as Two
Sisters, has long been ascribed to Cosway, and on
the evidence afforded by some writing pasted to the
back of the oval frame, but in no sense an integral
part of the miniature itself, has been called The
Duchess of Devonshire and her sister Lady Dun-
cannon. It was evident to me from the first that,
although this exquisitely-finished little piece had
certain definite points of resemblance to the work
of the renowned English master whose name it bore,
it showed differences of conception and technique
which made it impossible to seriously sustain the
attribution to him. Failing for the moment any
more satisfactory solution, I provisionally cata-
logued it under the old name, with the word of
caution ' ascribed to Cosway.' The family like-
ness between the work of the man who limned the
Two Sisters and that of Cosway is undeniable
and obvious. On the other hand, the drawing,
less bold and elegant than Cosway's best work, is
much more finished, more highly worked up in
every particular, the elegant toilettes de ville of the
two ladies being detailed with a skill and fidelity
to which the English master of miniature never
pretended — which, indeed, like Reynolds and
Gainsborough, he as much as possible avoided.
Another point, which in itself would be sufficient
to shut out the authorship of Cosway, is the delicate
landscape background, with its very light, even
tonality, the chief component elements of which
are salmon pink and pale green. I am not aware
that Cosway, or any of his British contemporaries
of the first rank, ever relieved their portraits
against such backgrounds. The contemporary
French and allied schools did, on the other hand, very
frequently thus enliven their counterfeit present-
ments in miniature, and the Swede Pierre-Adolphe
Hall — a master of this art, who became acclimatized
in France, and stood practically at the head of
the French school of limners of this class — made
flowery bowers and park-like backgrounds an
especial feature both of his portraits proper and of
his fanciful studies of youth and beauty en desha-
bille galant. The recent publication in the Jahrbuch
der Koniglich - Preussischen Kunstsammlungen
(Sech und zwanzigster Bund, i. Heft) of a very
interesting and practically exhaustive monograph
by Herr Ferdinand Laban on the Viennese
11 Plate IV, page 149.

NOTES. PLATE IV.

TRAIT STUDY IN MINIAT
p IEINRICH

■ k ; i n r h e

WALLACE COLLECTION*.

miniature-painter Heinrich Friedrich Fuger, some-
times called ' The Cosway of Vienna,' has fur-
nished the key to the enigma — enabling me to
identify the miniature now under discussion as
beyond reasonable doubt as by this local celebrity —
an artist not much known, as yet, over here beyond
the inner circle of collectors, yet certainly one
of the most accomplished miniature-painters of
his time, which was practically that of Cosway.
Propert has said of him that ' for delicacy of
colour and general refinement his miniatures will
compare favourably with our Cosway, or the
charming French (!) artist Hall.' This judgement
is in the main not unfounded. And yet at the
Wallace Collection, where this Fuger hangs in
the same case with at least two Cosways of the
first rank, and an unrivalled collection of Hall's
finest works, it is seen that, while Fuger is
distinguished by an exquisite delicacy of touch
and a rare power of finely individualizing his
sitters, he has not the suave, if rather conven-
tional, elegance of Cosway, or the sprightliness,
the movement, the vivacity of execution which
give life and fascination to the most charming
creations of Hall. It is perhaps not quite fair to
judge the Austrian master by this charming little
piece, now for the first time identified in the Wallace
Collection, since its laborious finish and a certain
anxiousness betrayed in the general working out
would seem to point to an early date in the artist's
career as that of its execution. Fuger is at his very
best in the celebrated miniature on a large scale,
The Countesses Elisabeth, Christiane, and Marie-
Caroline Thun, now in the Kaiser-Friedrich
Museum of Berlin, and the Portrait of a Lady,
both of them beautifully reproduced in colours in
the Jahrbuch with Herr Laban's article. It is
necessary, moreover, before making up one's mind
about the piquant and highly-individualized art of
the Viennese court limner, to study the long suc-
cession of portrait-miniatures reproduced by Herr
Laban from originals in the Imperial Academy of
Arts of Vienna, the Imperial Museum there, the
collections of the House of Austria, the Figdor
Collection, and others in the same regions. In
these is revealed an artist whose portraits, though
they may not, save in rare and exceptional
instances, exercise that peculiar fascination, not
exempt from meretriciousness, which distinguishes
his most famous contemporaries in England and
France, do unquestionably constitute records of in-
dividual character, of personality, of far more value
than any of theirs. And really in the two master-
pieces of the limner's art facsimiled in colours in
the Jahrbuch he is second to none, whether in
distinction and elegance, or in truth and vitality.
Fiiger's miniatures are exceedingly rare in
England, and at the present moment I am not
able to point to any with which I have a personal
acquaintance. Lady Currie (Mrs. Singleton)
contributed, I find, to the great exhibition of

zA Miniature by Fuger

miniatures held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club
in 1889 a portrait of Francoise Magdalene de
Clermont D'Amboise ascribed to Fuger ; but of
this I have no distinct recollection. We have
still to ascertain who are the two young ladies in
the bloom of youth and the freshness of immacu-
late spring finery who have hitherto usurped the
names of the fair Georgiana, Duchess of Devon-
shire, and her sister. Here I hope for some
guidance from Herr Laban. He mentions as
among the first miniatures with which Fuger won
celebrity the portraits of the two daughters of the
engraver, J . F. Bause. Against the identification of
these likenesses with the miniature in the Wallace
Collection is the fact, or rather the supposition,
that they were single pictures, not a portrait-group.
I may add in conclusion that the Two Sisters
of the Wallace Collection is painted on ivory, as
are the great majority of Fiiger's best authenti-
cated works of the same type.

Claude Phillips.

A MUSEUM OF ROMAN ANTIQUITIES
Signor Boni, the able director of the excavations
in the Roman Forum, has formed an admirable
scheme for gathering together in a central museum
contiguous to the Forum topographical records of
the Roman remains to be found in various parts
of the world. This scheme is embodied in a small
pamphlet which he has sent to the chairman of
the English Society for the Protection of Ancient
Buildings, in common with other archaeological
societies in Europe. Signor Boni appeals for in-
formation in the shape of photographs accom-
panied by topographical and other descriptions
to be kept and classified for reference and study
in the museum, which would thus become a com-
prehensive record of Roman antiquity.

Signor Boni points out that, owing to the rich-
ness of its historical and artistic memorials, Italy
has been, more than any other country, a prey
to the spoiler; and, though some monuments of
supreme importance still remain in the form of
buildings that cannot be broken into fragments
and made over to the foreigner, some of the finest
examples of archaic art are now to be found in
foreign collections. He appeals to the officials of
museums and archaeological societies, and to all
students of classical antiquity, for photographs of
important monuments and architectural structures,
such as tombs, bridges, aqueducts, walls, gates,
temples, amphitheatres, etc. But he does not wish
the photographs to be limited to 'reproductions of
buildings, as there is much to complete in the way
of anthropology and ethnography.' Indeed he
asks for photographs, not only of anything con-
nected with Roman antiquity, but even of the
domestic utensils of contemporary peasant people
and costumes; 'little in this way,' he says, 'has
been done by Italy, and if the camera does not
quickly come to the rescue, every trace will dis-

151

*A Museum of Roman ^Antiquities

appear of the costumes which differentiated the
races which often date back to the very earliest
beginnings of Italy.' He further announces the
preparation of a catalogue of monuments intended
as a guide in forming this collection.

It is hardly necessary to commend Signor Boni's
appeal, which speaks for itself; he has our hearty
wishes for the success of his efforts and our com-
plete sympathy in his pointed and sensible obser-
vations on the proper, as against the improper,
treatment of historic buildings and historic finds
in general with which his appeal is prefaced.
Signor Boni has recently taken a journey beyond
the Alps in order to make notes of anything that
bore in any way upon excavations in the Forum,
and in the course of this journey he has had occa-
sion to observe that deplorable methods of restora-
tion still persist in other countries than his own.
Indeed his conclusion is that the methods of
archaeological research in other countries give
Italy little cause for envy. We can sorrowfully
acknowledge the justice of his criticisms and trust
that they will not be without effect.

SOME PORTRAIT DRAWINGS BY DURER
IN ENGLISH COLLECTIONS,
RECENTLY IDENTIFIED

i. Portrait of Paulus Hofhaimer in the
British Museum 12

An identification proposed by Dr. Dornhoffer
in a footnote to a review of Dr. Rottinger's mono-
graph on Hans Weiditz, 13 is not quite certain,

Fig. I.— Hofhaimer at the Organ. Detail from 'Maximilian at
Mass.' Woodcut by Hari6 Weiditz

but the suggestion is attractive and too interesting
to be overlooked. Hofhaimer was born near
Salzburg in 1459, and entered the service of the

11 Reproduced, Plate V, page 153.
■ " Kunstgeschichtlichs Anzeigen, 1904, p. 58. For the biography
of Hofhaimer, see Eitner's ' Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und
Musikgelehrten,' v. 169.

152

Archduke Sigismund. On the latter's death in
1496, he became court organist to Maximilian,
whom he often accompanied on his journeys. He
resided otherwise at Innsbruck until, after the

Fig. 2. — Hofhaimer at the Organ. Detail from 'The Triumphal
Procession of Maximilian.' Woodcut by Hans Burgkmair

Emperor's death, he removed to Salzburg, where
he was organist of the cathedral. In his 'Har-
moniae Poeticae,' printed at Nuremberg in 1539,
he is spoken of as already dead. One of the many
complimentary poems printed in that volume refers
to a painting of Hofhaimer, by Cranach, but no-
thing is said of a portrait by Diirer. He appears
in two woodcuts of the time, Maximilian hearing
Mass, by Hans Weiditz (formerly attributed to
Dtirer, B. app. 31, or Burgkmair, P. 99), and
No. 22 in the 1796 edition of the Triumphal Pro-
cession of Maximilian, a certain work of Burgkmair
himself (see Figs. 1 and 2). The Diirer drawing in
which Dr. Dornhoffer recognizes the same features
is Lippmann 284, an undated charcoal portrait
which Lippmann places among the drawings of
the journey to the Netherlands in 1521. Both the
woodcut portraits are drawn on a small scale in
profile to the right, whereas the drawing by Diirer
is on a large scale, approaching life-size, and in
three-quarter face to the left. The difference of
pose and scale makes the recognition of the por-
trait difficult, but the shape of the nose and cut of
the hair are certainly much alike in all three heads.
If the identification is correct, this will probably
be another of Diirer's Augsburg portraits of 1518.
The new suggestion is far more probable than one
previously put forward by Dr. B. Haendcke, u that
we have in L. 284 a portrait of Oswald Krell in
later life.

14 Zeitschr./.christlicheKunst, xi. 157.

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Z S H J

Carved JJ r ood Watch-stands

2. Portrait of Ulrich Starck in the
British Museum 15

One of the few drawings of 1527, the last year
of Dtirer's life, is the black chalk bust of a man, in
profile to the right, Lippmann 296. Ephrussi
settled it that the sitter was an Englishman, and
this opinion was adopted by other writers, though
it is difficult to see how Dtirer could have drawn
an Englishman except, perhaps, in the Netherlands
or on the occasion of Morley's mission to Nurem-
berg in 1523. The identity of the sitter has now
been established by Dr. A. Hagelstange 10 by aid of
a medal at Nuremberg, 16 which must have been
made directly from the drawing. Nothing is
altered but the costume. The obverse bears the
legend, ' Vlricus Starck aetatis sve XLHI,' the re-
verse has the arms of Starck with the motto, ' In
Domino confido ' and the date M.D.XXVII. It is
suggested that Ludwig Krug may have made the
medal after Durer, but this cannot be proved.

Ulrich Starck was a member of a patrician
family of Nuremberg. lie was born in 14S4,
married Katharina Imhof in 1513, and died in
1549. Two other medals of him exist, earlier and
later respectively than the portrait of 1527 ; his
likeness is also to be found among the drawings
by Hans Schwartz in the Berlin Museum.

3. Portrait of Hans Burgkmair at Oxford

The black chalk drawing, Lippmann 396, in the
University Galleries, has generally been taken for
a portrait of Jakob Fugger. It was done in 151S,
the year of the Diet of Augsburg, at which Durer
drew Maximilian's portrait, and it certainly bears
some resemblance to Fugger's features. Far
greater is the likeness to another Augsburg cele-
brity, the painter Hans Burgkmair. This was
first noticed by Dr. F. Dornhoffer, director of the
print collection of the Hofbibliothek, Vienna,
in an essay on the relations between Dtirer and
Burgkmair. 17 One has only to glance at the re-
production of the drawing set beside two authentic
portraits of Burgkmair by himself, the drawing of
1517 at Hamburg, and the painting of 1529 at
Vienna, to see that the identification is absolutely
certain. It has been adopted by Mr. Sturge
Moore in his recent book on Durer, p. 91.

Campbell Dodgson.

CARVED WOOD WATCH-STANDS FROM
THE COLLECTION OF MR. CHARLES
EDWARD JERNINGHAM

The series of carved wood watch-stands illus-
trated on Plate VI are a few examples taken from a
most interesting collection formed by Mr. Charles
Edward Jerningham, who, with an apparently in-
exhaustible power of originality, appears always
to be able to discover new sources of interest

u Reproduced, Plate V, p. 153.
IS ' Mitteil. d. Ges. f. vervielf. Kunst,' 1905, p. 25.
W ' Uber Burgkmair und Durer. Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte
Franz WickhofTgewidmet,' Wien, 1903, p. III.

worthy of the best attention of all lovers of the
relics of the past.

The fact that watch-stands in carved wood
have hitherto escaped the notice of the art col-
lector is not so difficult to understand when their
extreme rarity is borne in mind. They are fairly
common in many other materials; earthenware,
porcelain, and various metals have all been
brought into the service of those who wished to
have a suitable receptacle for placing their watch
when not actually carrying it on their person; but
to find a well-carved wood watch-stand is in-
finitely more difficult than anyone would imagine
who had not engaged in the quest.

At the present day, when watches and clocks
have become so cheap as to be easily procurable
by the most humble member of the community,
few people realize how precious the possession of
a reliable timepiece was considered in the days of
our ancestors. In those days the fortunate owner
when at home would probably be expected to
make his watch take the place of a clock by
setting it in a stand in a conspicuous position in
the room, so that all the household might have
the benefit of being able to know the time of day.
This fact entirely accounts for the elaborate
designs of the watch-stands of the eighteenth
century as compared with the simple character
of those of the present time, when they are merely
intended as convenient receptacles for holding
the watch on the dressing-table at night. The
artistic taste of the period demanded that the
watch-stand should not only fulfil the duty of
safely holding the watch in a prominent position,
but should also in itself be a decorative adjunct
to the room ; this was the more necessary as the
stand would be very often empty while the owner
of the watch was carrying it with him. With
apologies for this short introduction we will now
turn to the consideration of the examples shown
in the illustrations.

Two of the most important in the collection
are Figs. 4 and 7, which are covered with gilding
and represent respectively Hercules with tin
Nemaean Lion, and Mercury in his character as
the god of merchandise and patron of merchants.
The subjects of these two stands date them to
the period when society was ruled by the craze
for introducing the gods of the Grecian mytho-
logy on every possible occasion; these stands
cannot have been made much later than about
1730. Another very characteristic example is
Fig. 2, decorated in the style of Louis XV, with
delicately carved festoons of flowers painted in
natural colours, the other portions being enriched
with gilding on a dark green ground. Fig. 3 is
remarkable as a specimen of fine carving ; it is all
in one piece excepting the foot, a large portion of
the decoration being cut to within one-eighth of
an inch in thickness ; the whole design is intended
as a representation of the sun, the ruler of the

157

C a real JI r ood Watch-stands

hours; the little cupid below with the basket of
flowers is very finely modelled. In Fig. i is shown
a skilful adaptation of the dolphin motif which was
for so Ions; a period a favourite on the old brass
lantern clocks. Figs. 5 and 6 are sufficiently de-
scribed by the illustration, their chief characteristic
being the figure of Time seated at the base.

The limited space at our disposal forbids us to
5 this subject at any greater length, but this
note will have served its purpose if it succeeds in
awakening an interest in a forgotten phase of the
work of a class of craftsmen of former days when
articles which are now looked upon as common
necessities were regarded as luxuries and had to
be eked out so as to serve the needs of as many
people as possible. C. H. Wylde.

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS IN AUSTRIA

The great revolution played havoc with the
quondam fine private art collections in France.
Germany, in former times, was always too poor to
boast of any important ones. Latterly, those for
which England was famous have been diminish-
ing. Before long, it seems, Austria will be the first
country as regards fine old collections of works of
art. Vienna already to-day stands almost without
a rival, containing as it does within its walls such
galleries as the Liechtenstein, the Czernin, the
Harrach,andthe Schonborn Buchheim collections.

There are many others, perhaps only slightly
less important than these, scattered over different
castles in the united empire — all of them scarcely
known, as, for example, the collections of the
Rohan family, which were brought from France,
whence members of that famous house migrated
more than a century ago. The modern art col-
lections in Austria cannot compete with the old,
and one of the most important is upon the point
of ceasing to exist, if the reports spread about
it should prove true.

Mr. A. von Lanna at Prague has devoted large
sums of money and many years to stacking
his fine residence full of beautiful things. He
began to collect more than forty years ago,
when things were cheap and when the connois-
seurs were few and far between. He was gifted
with a refined natural taste, and practical ac-
quaintance with art objects trained his eye in
a few years to such an extent that he could
infallibly distinguish the genuine and valuable
from the inferior and sham. Mr. von Lanna
collected fine prints, drawings by old masters,
books of the fifteenth-sixteenth century, medals,
porcelain and faience, and glass. A catalogue of
the prints in two volumes appeared in 1895. The
porcelain, faience, and glass collections are at
present shown as a loan exhibition at the Prague
Museum of Applied Arts. It is rumoured that the
Austrian (Bohemian) Government are making
overtures to purchase them in behalf of the State
for the sum of a million and a half florins.

158

Speaking of private collections — a portion of
the Forbes collection was put up at auction at
Cologne the other day, including all the pictures
by German artists, one or two French paintings,
and six large drawings and pastels by Segantini.
Most extraordinary reports have been for a long
time circulated about Mr. Forbes's collection,
which perhaps owe their existence to the circum-
stance that it was never on view. It is to be
hoped, at any rate, that the standard of the other
portions is decidedly above that of the German
collection, which was very indifferent. Among
the 102 pictures put up for sale only thirteen
fetched more than £150 apiece, and very
many sold for less than £50. The principal
Lenbach was a tame replica of the Leipsic
Emperor William I, and I conjecture that must
have been bought in at £1,525, because it seems
improbable that anyone in Germany should have
given that sum for a picture of which Lenbach
professedly painted no less than five replicas.

We all know that the world is a merry-go-
round, what is at the top or in front to-day will
be at the bottom or in the background to-morrow.
But it is always amusing to find new instances
proving the old adage, and especially to see artists
and art critics, both of whom are always so
ready to condemn whatever immediately preceded
them, furnishing such proofs. At Bremen a new
statue of Emperor Frederick by Tuaillon has
been unveiled. It represents the emperor, still
alive in the memories of most of the present
generation, semi-nude, more or less like a Roman
conqueror. Shoals of the most pushing and
popular among modern critics jumped at the idea
as a revelation, as something bright and grand
and new, breaking away from cramping traditions.
These traditions are not yet of 50 years' standing.
I believe there is a ' Roman ' statue of Napo-
leon III somewhere, and certainly this 'novel'
thing, representing a modern king or general as a
hero of antiquity, more or less nude, was the usual
thing long after Napoleon I's time. A generation
or so ago it was decried as ' cramping tradition.'

H.W. S.

THE DIRECTORSHIP OF THE BRITISH

MUSEUM

In Mr. M. H. Spielmann's article in the last
number of The Burlington Magazine, it was
stated that the Directorship of the British Museum
was about to fall vacant, and this was also implied
in the first editorial article. It is with particular
pleasure that we are able to announce that both
Mr. Spielmann and ourselves were mistaken in
this regard. The Director of the British Museum
is appointed under Sign Manual, and is not sub-
ject to the retirement regulations of the Civil
Service. We rejoice to learn that Sir Edward
Maunde Thompson has no intention of retiring
from the position which he so ably fills.

J& LETTERS TO THE EDITORS Jar*

THE HISTORY OF ART ACCORDING TO

MR. WEALE
Gentlemen,

The last letter published by The BUR-
LINGTON concerning my book on the 'Primitives'
has produced a mirthful impression on all com-
petent readers. It would have been unworthy of
a reply had it not appeared in the pages of a
serious paper whose readers are not obliged to
be acquainted with ' the Van Eyck question.'
Mr. Weale has gone so far in his fancies and
rectifications that one is inclined to think that
some mauvais plaisant has forged his signature.
However, I appeal to your judgement, and quote,
number by number, the remarks imagined by the
prete-nom of the eminent member of the Academy
of Belgium. It would be very amusing did it not
affect Mr. Weale's artistic reputation, as you will
perceive.

The author of the reply has written down his
rectifications in one column, opposite the 'non-
sense ' emitted by me. This manner of pro-
ceeding is sufficient to prove that Mr. Weale has
had nothing to do with the case. The said author
pretends to criticize my book on the ' Primitifs
Francais,' and has chosen, he says, some ' mis-
statements ' amongst the numerous false opinions
it contains.

That being the case, why does he give under
No. i an answer to an article in the Bulletin de
I' Art ? The author of the rectifications mentions
an example of a translation of De Eyck by Van
Eyck. There exist a hundred other examples Mr.
Weale must be acquainted with. But Mr. Weale
is well aware that the Van Eycks always signed
De Eyck, 1 and that the popular and modern
version is a confusion between the de article and
the de preposition. As a proof whereof we may
mention that a transcriber has retained the de
article in referring to the daughter of Van Eyck,
whom he names Van der Eecke. 2 Mr. Weale would
have abstained from writing the rectification of
The Burlington in presence of the name so spelt.

2. We here approach the greater buffoonery.

The question is to show that Jacques Cone is only

a supernumerary, and in order to do so the

author of the rectification informs us of some very

singular facts. He states that the plan of the

church of Milan dates from 1356, and that the

construction began on the 18th of March of that

year. Now read this : —

La storia di sua edificazione sta registrata nelle antiche
cronache e nei libri della fabbrica. . . assegnando esse l'epoca
del suo annalzamente nell' anno 13SG, mentre releviarao che, nel
giorno 15 marzo di detto anno, Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti
circondato da brillante e numeroso sua corte. da moltiarchitetti,
parti nazionali, parte stranieri. . . vi si pose la prima pietra
fondamentale. 3

1 A picture at Vienna bears the name of /. van Eyck, but it
does not appear to be the work of that artist, in spite of Mr.
Weale's dissertation in The Burlington of May 1904.

: 1 e Laborde, No. 1407.

9 ' La Metrorolitana di Milano,' an official work published in
1824 by G. Bocca, Milano, in fol. page 1.

As you perceive, Mr. Weale's name has been
really misused. This is the more evident when
he is fathered with the idea — most strange ! — that
the Fabric of Milan sent for J. Cone and his com-
panion Mignot to sketch or draw the church
already built. It was precisely because the Italian
architects were unable to execute the work — very
little advanced in 1399 — that the two artists were
sent for, at the recommendation of Jean Aucher.'
Designate ecclesiam signifies to determine the plan,
and not to sketch, as the author of the rectifica-
tions insinuates. A proof moreover that Mignot
was a ' building architect ' exists in the fact that
he quarrelled with the members of the Fabric
about a chapiteau, which he placed too low, in
1401. Can you conceive these two men conveyed
to Milan at a great expense, and accompanied by
an assistant, only to execute a drawing, which they
took two years to accomplish !

Mr. Weale would be amply justified in suing
the individual who dares to thus misuse his
signature, and to attribute to him such false dates.

3. The first part of the note refutes M. Houd< y,
and not me. The contradictor insinuates that
Jean de Yeke is not Jean van Eyke ; what does
Mr. Weale think of this assertion ? The second
part of the ' rectificative ' note is even more
burlesque than note 2. The ' Saint Thomas a
Beckett' — Mr. Weale has repeated it oftenand again
— has been entirely repainted, restored and per-
verted. The frame bears the date MCCCC 21
octobris, according to the catalogue of the Bruges
Exhibition, No. 8. This date is intact, says
Mr. Weale's prete-nom ; the canvas alone has been
retouched! But as in reality the date is 1400,
21 October, the figures 30 have been inserted
between 21 and octobris, in order to justify the
authorship of Jean van Eyck. Crowe and
Cavalcaselle, in the Springer edition, contest
that date. M. Paul Durrieu demonstrates it to
be an 'infamous falsification.' 5 The warmest
partisans of Flemish art consent to it. Unfortu-
nately Mr. Weale considers it an irrefutable
argument in favour of Jean van Eyck, that which
induces his prete-nom to compose his rectification,
which becomes in this case a most ludicrous piece
of nonsense. In this instance he, like Ham, un-
covers his father's nakedness.

4. The author insinuates that if I do not under-
stand the last verse of the 'Lamb,' it is because
I have wrongly transcribed it. This is not the
case. My version is that of the Catalogue of
Berlin. It would perhaps have been preferable
to give us the true sense; but he carefully refrains
from so doing. It is a rebus Mr. Weale's prete-
nom is incompetent to solve.

* • Annali <li Fabbrica,* I. 199.

'Paul Durrieu, Bulletin de la Soriiti- naticnale des Antiquairet
de France, 1902, and Les Debuts da Van Eyck, page 9.

6 'This picture,' writes Mr. Weale, ' constitutes actually the
most ancient work executed by the brush of the youngest of the
two brothers.' Catalogue 0/ the Exhibition of Bruges, Preface. —
And yet he admits that it has been 'entirely repainted '!

N 159

Letters to the Editors

5. Carl van Mander, in his ' Livredes Peintres '
(edit, de l'Art, 1882, page 393), says that in
certain cities of the Netherlands the tinkers,
pewtermongers, frippers, etc., formed part of the
corporation of painters. Here again the prete-
nom plays a scurvy trick upon Mr. Weale, whom
he appears to accuse of not having read Van
Mander.

It is impossible to carry to a higher pitch a
very sorry jest, as you will admit.

In presence of the harm done to Mr. Weale, I
care very little for the insinuations made against
myself. The author of the ' note ' wished to kill
two birds with one stone, and to crush me while
slaying Mr. Weale. For my part, I escape as
best I can. I can scarcely say so much for my
companion in adversity. Henri Bouchot.

%* We submitted a proof of M. Bouchot's
letter to Mr. Weale, in order that he might close
the controversy, and he writes as follows : —

' M. Bouchot's methods are ludicrous. Does he imagine that
the readers of The Burlington Magazine are so ignorant as
not to know that John Van Eyck's paintings are signed by him
in Latin, and that de is a preposition = van ? I know only one
inscription in which de does not occur, but this exception only
proves the absurdity of M. Bouchot's contention. John calls
his brother " Hubertus e Eyck." Duke Philip of Burgundy and
the canons of Bruges, who knew John intimately, call him in
French and Latin documents "van Eyck." M. Bouchot thinks
he knows better than they.

1 As to the second point I repeat that Coene was only employed
to make a drawing of the cathedral as it then stood, which drawing
he was ordered to begin on the morrow of his arrival in August
I 399- John de Grassis was also employed to make a model of
wood snowing the work of each master-mason, a number of whom
had been employed. Mignot, who seems to have been a can-
tankerous conceited individual, criticized everybody else's work,
relying apparently on the Duke's protection. To put an end to
the scandal he was ordered to hand in his observations in writ-
ing. These were refuted, and he was sent about his business.

' 3. The assertion that the 30 is an interpolation is audacious.

' 4. M. Bouchot says his version (" Les Primitifs," p. 229) is
that of the Berlin catalogue. But it is not. The catalogue
(1878, p 103) has versu, Mr. Bouchot versus. On the subject of
this inscription, see The Burlington Magazine, Vol. IV,
pp. 26, 27 (January 1904).

' 5. Haarlem is not in Flanders ; and Van Mander, writing in
1600, is not a reliable authority as to artists of the fifteenth
century.'

DRUG AND UNGUENT POTS FOUND IN
LONDON

Gentlemen,

I read with much pleasure Mr. C. H.
Wylde's article, in the April number of The Bur-
lington Magazine, on the origin of the small
delft-ware drug and unguent pots found in exca-
vations in London ; and although the considera-
tions adduced amply disprove, in my opinion,
Mr. Wallis's contention that these rough and
insignificant pieces are of Italian workmanship,
further evidence, especially if it is of a circumstan-
tial nature, can hardly fail to be of interest.

Mr. Pit, the learned curator of the Netherlands
Museum, Amsterdam, recently informed me that
a number of pots precisely similar to those in
question have been found in excavations in the

160

town of Delft. This discovery clearly indicates a
Dutch origin for part at least of the debated wares,
though it does not necessarily invalidate Mr. Wylde's
conclusion that those found in London were made
for the English druggists at local factories, since
the manufacture of English delft was learned direct
from Holland, and, indeed, actually started by
Dutch potters. It will at any rate be granted that
in spite of the debased Italian motives which
appear in the decoration of some of these pots, it
is superfluous to look further than Holland for
their birthplace. R. L. Hobson.

A MINISTRY OF FINE ARTS?
Gentlemen,

The idea of a Minister of Fine Arts, as set
forth in your journal by Mr. Spielmann, is most
charming. A control by Government which would
correct all that may be complained of with regard
to our public picture galleries and museums, which
would remove field advertisements, so offensive to
all right-minded travellers, making them ashamed
that foreigners should see our sordidness, which
would prevent the general disfigurement of our
cities and towns, as well as save our valuable
ancient buildings and monuments both from
neglect and from ' restoration ' ; that all these
important matters should be set right is indeed a
fascinating idea.

But could one man be so gifted as to be capable
of forming a right judgement in all these things?
I think not. If a minister were appointed he
would certainly require an office with clerks.
When the Government changed he would be
replaced by another Minister of Fine Arts, who
would find that his office knew more of the details
of his subject than he did, and, in the end, we
should find what we most care about would be
under the control of a Government office.

The Burlington Magazine finds it desirable
to have a strong committee representing the
many branches of art with which it deals. The
clerks of the Government office would take the
place of this committee, but is there any chance
that they would be as strong a committee as the
committee of your magazine ? We know that
they would not, and I think that we should be
wise to take warning by the result of the control
of such matters by Government in other countries.

Thackeray Turner.

THE BOSTON VELAZQUEZ

Gentlemen,

It may be of interest to your readers to
know that the Boston ' Velazquez,' described in
the April number of The Burlington Magazine,
was a few years ago taken to the Prado and
placed next to the Velazquez portraits, and by all
the best critics acknowledged to be a copy.

Alban Head.
Madrid, n April 1905.

J* BIBLIOGRAPHY &

PAINTING

Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and En-
gravers. Vol. V, S — Z. G. Bell & Sons.
£i is. net.
It is easy to find fault with any work conceived
on so large a scale as this new edition of Bryan's
Dictionary. The issue of the fifth and final volume
makes it possible to view the series as a whole, and
in so doing it is impossible not to recognize that
the new ' Bryan ' is not only more bulky and more
handsome, but also much more complete and
trustworthy than any of the older versions.
From the point of view of scholarship, objection
must be taken to a portion of the illustrations as
perpetrating pictures that only deserve oblivion.
At the same time the fault perhaps lies almost
as much with the taste of the British public as
with the editor and publishers. In England it is
still impossible for good work to obtain acceptance
except as a pill sweetened with a goodly propor-
tion of the jam of sentiment, and the inclusion
of letterpress and pictures connected with certain
popular pets was probably a necessary concession,
since the book will have to depend largely upon
English people for its success.

Side by side with these bids for popularity we
find a great deal of tolerable criticism, and some
really first-rate essays, among which that of
Dr. Kristeller on Squarcione and the concise
notices of Mr. Weale are prominent. We could
wish Mr. Weale's virtues had been emulated
by the writers of the notices of modern artists
who are often absurdly verbose. The notices of
R. Kent Thomas and Vereschagin might be
instanced.

In looking over the volume we have not noticed
many serious errors and omissions. A reference
should certainly have been given to Levina
Terling — for though she is dealt with in the first
volume under her maiden name, it is by her
married name that she is generally spoken of.
The date of A. G. Stannard's birth is surely
incorrect by nearly forty years. Joseph Slater,
the well-known portrait draughtsman of the earlier
part of the nineteenth century, is omitted, an
omission the more regrettable because there was
an earlier artist of exactly the same name, and
also because Slater's portraits are uncommonly
skilful as well as numerous. The omission of the
well-known landscape painter James Webb is
even more serious from the point of view of the
criticism of English painting. It is precisely to
such a work as 'Bryan 'that students should be able
to turn to find particulars of clever artists like
Webb and Paul, whose work under more famous
names is so frequently seen in good society. The
most notable slip in the illustrations is the attribu-
tion of the well-known picture by Bartolommeo
Veneto, at Glasgow, to Domenico Veneziano.
The notice of Bartolommeo Veneto, by the way,
is singularly inadequate and incorrect.

The letter from the author of one of the most
important new articles which appeared in The
Athcnaum for April 15th last, suggests that the
contributors cannot in all cases be held responsible
for the opinions professedly signed by them ; a
very serious defect in a work with pretensions to
accurate scholarship.

It is nevertheless only fair to recognize that the
articles dealing with the more popular painters
maintain a very respectable average of excellence,
and the purchasers of the new ' Bryan ' will at
least have a considerably better book than the
former edition.

Lorenzo Lotto. By Bernhard Berenson. Re-
vised Edition. George Bell & Sons. 7s.6d.net.

Mr. Berenson's monograph on Lorenzo Lotto
has already taken its place among the classics of
art criticism. At first sight it might be natural to
wonder, or even to regret, that the author's great
critical powers should have for so long been di-
verted to the study of one who with all his gifts of
talent and temperament was not an artist of the
first rank. Nevertheless this natural surprise or
regret would in reality be unreasonable. The wide
field of Italian criticism had ahead)- been s irveyed
by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, and the whole of their
survey has been revised by the researches of
Morelli, so that now we have a tolerably accurate
bird's-eye plan of the entire surface. The task of
the successors of these pioneers of criticism is to
complete the details, and this can only be done
district by district. The critic of to-day has to
make up his mind whether he will devote himself
to the perfecting of some tract of rich and con-
spicuous genius already cultivated and reduced to
approximate order by his predecessors, or whether
he will go out into the wilderness and explore some
rougher, less attractive upland, and attempt to
trace to their sources the streams from which the
main rivers of artistic progress have their origin.

Mr. Berenson took the latter course when he
chose Lotto for his subject, and the result of his
researches has fully justified the choice. Lotto
was one of the fortunate painters who lived when
the art of the Renaissance was reaching its highest
development. Being sensitive and adaptable by
nature he was impressed by the example of many
more independent spirits into whose sphere of
influence he happened to be carried, and the study
of his work from first to last is thus constantly
throwing light upon the other artists with whom
he came in contact.

The external influences which impressed the art
of Lotto's middle life had been sketched out before
Mr. Berenson devoted himself to the subject, and
for this portion of Lotto's career he could do little
more than amplify and verify and correct existing
criticism. With regard to the early portion of
Lotto's career the position was different. Here
the whole existing tradition had to be reconsidered,

161

Bibliography

with a result that amounted practically to an entire
re-writing of the history of Venetian painting at
the end of the fifteenth century, and the recon-
struction of the forgotten personality of Alvise
Yivarini as the head of a school second in impor-
tance only to that of Bellini himself.

Of the mass of arguments adduced in support of
Mr. Berenson's view of Alvise and his followers,
some part (not a large one) may seem a little far-
fetched; not everyone may agree as to the author-
ship of all the works of art attributed to him (the
drawings, perhaps, are less obviously character-
istic than are the paintings), but the sum total of
the result achieved is so great that the book must
always be one of the cardinal authorities upon
the growth of Venetian art. It may be added that
this new edition, besides containing a good deal
of additional matter, including some interesting
notes on portraits recently identified as Alvise's
work, is admirably illustrated and produced.

Albert Durer. By T. Sturge Moore. Duck-
worth. 7s. 6d. net.

The previous volumes of Messrs. Duckworth's
series have all followed more or less the recognized
lines of modern artistic biographies. Mr. Moore's
book is an exception. As he explains in his pre-
face, it is intended to be an appreciation of Durer
in relation to general ideas, an unorthodox pro-
gramme which is carried out with unusual fresh-
ness and completeness. Those who are acquainted
with Mr. Moore's previous work in prose and
poetry will expect originality, enthusiasm, and an
almost overpowering wealth of imagery, and in
these respects they will not be disappointed.
Perhaps the most notable feature of the writer's
attitude is his aloofness from current interests, a
feature which, in combination with much shrewd-
ness of insight, gave a peculiar charm to his study
of Altdorfer. Viewing the world with eyes at once
keen and simple, Mr. Moore sees with a certain
cleanly frankness, which enables him to approach
the character of Durer with a sympathy that has
not been extended to it hitherto.

It would be hard to overpraise Mr. Moore's
treatment of Durer's attitude to morality and to
the religion of his time, but even this portion of
the book yields in interest to that in which he
deals with a subject in which biographers are far
more rarely successful, the analysis of Durer's atti-
tude towards his art. His lucid exposition of
Durer's theory of a canon of proportion has already
appeared in The Burlington Magazine. It will
give some idea of the logical and sensible spirit in
which Mr. Moore deals with the master's theories,
and with his desire to help others by recording the
results of his own experience. On the practical side
Mr. Moore is no less well equipped, and although
he makes little attempt at an exhaustive study of all
the drawings, paintings, and engravings given to

162

Durer (the paintings, indeed, he deals with almost
too briefly), he marks their characteristics with
so much intuition and technical experience that no
student of art can fail to be informed and stimu-
lated by the book, however considerable his per-
sonal attainments or however well provided with
Durer literature he may be.

One or two impatient criticisms of other critics
seem more out of place in a book whose general
tone is so lofty than do one or two trifling mis-
prints, and in our copy at least the frontispiece
is missing. The only other fault that could be
found with the work is a certain lack of order and
proportion in the arrangement of thoughts that in
themselves are logical enough. Mr. Moore, in fact,
has a tendency to be overwhelmed by the quantity
of his own ideas, but this surplusage is so unusual
in these days that it makes this book even more
remarkable than it would be had its growth been
trained and pruned by some precisian.

The Life and Art of Sandro Botticelli.
By Julia Cartwright (Mrs. Ady). Duckworth.
21s. net.

Like the Nemesis in a Greek tragedy, the monu-
mental life of Botticelli, upon which Mr. Herbert
Home has been engaged for so many years, would
seem to have hung like a heavy cloud over other
critics of Italian painting. It is difficult to explain
in any other way w^hy the one who is perhaps the
most generally popular of all Florentine artists of
the Renaissance should have been the subject of
so few biographies of any kind in England.
Mrs. Ady's book makes no claim to finality, but
those who know and can appreciate the products
of her many-sided activity will not be disappointed
in her latest work. This life of Botticelli is not
perhaps very original or profound, but it sums up
the results of the best modern research in a plea-
sant and readable form, and contains plenty of
illustrations. Some of these, by the way, are re-
peated in a manner that suggests an alteration in
the original plan of the book. The repetition
is rather annoying because one or two of Botti-
celli's most important works, such as the Sistine
frescoes, are quite inadequately shown.

One merit of the biography is the excellent
picture which it draws of Botticelli's Florence —
the Florence of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and of
Savonarola. Its chief defect is a certain diffuseness,
or rather lack of incisi veness, in the treatment of the
pictures themselves. If Botticelli's imitators were
to be discussed and illustrated, the points on
which they fall short of the master himself, e.g.,
in the treatment of the hand, should have been
explained. Botticelli's colour, too, surely deserved
more definite praise. The glowing scarlet and
gold and azure of the Coronation of the Virgin in
the Accademia, and the unique perfection of The
Calumny of Apelles surely might have been ac-

Bibliography

corded a fitting tribute. We regret these defects
because the volume is otherwise accurate and
appreciative as well as pleasantly written.

How to Identify Portrait Miniatures. By
Dr. Williamson. London: G. Bell & Sons.
6s. net.

This is an epitome of the pretentious work in two
large volumes by the same author, and contains a
certain amount of varied information not always
trustworthy. Its usefulness for the purpose indi-
cated by the title would be greater were it not for
the poverty of the illlustrations.

Analysis of Drawing, Painting, and Composi-
tion. By H. L. Moore, 31, Margravine
Gardens, W. 12s. 6d. post free.

There is much to commend in Mr. Moore's effort
at removing some of the difficulties which sur-
round the teaching of drawing. The bulk of the
advice given is sensible and practical, and is ex-
plained and illustrated by some four hundred illus-
trations by the author, who is also the publisher
of the book. Nevertheless, the book has one or
two serious faults. As writing it is amateurish,
and thus is not easy reading : a grave defect in a
work intended for beginners. More serious still
is the lack of insistence on quality of workman-
ship. The author's drawings are generally excel-
lent and to the point, but they will not give the
student any idea of the refinements of execution
found in all first-rate work. No harm can be done
by insisting on those refinements from the first,
and the reproduction of half-a-dozen drawings by
the great masters properly annotated would teach
a student more than double the number of rough
diagrams and many pages of letterpress. The
printer's reader ought to have corrected ' the
Greeko-Romans ' and 'Annanias,' even if Ilissis '
seemed sufficiently Hellenic to pass muster.

Millet. By Netta Peacock. Methuen. 2s.6d.net.

A careful little book principally illustrated by
small reproductions of the Millet drawings in the
Boston Museum.

about him in England. This excellent study by
Mr. Rudolf Dircks is unfortunately omitted by
M. Mauclair from his list of books and articles
relating to Rodin. Otherwise M. Mauclair's work
is fairly complete, and is a pleasant supplement
to the articles of M. Roger Marx and the volumes
of M. Maillard and Mile. Cladel.

M. Rodin has numerous friends among literary
men, and in consequence those who write about
him have a tendency to read more ' literary '
purpose (even while denying its existence) into his
work than he himself would claim. The titles,
for instance, which they attach to many of his
sculptures, which need christening no more than
do pieces of music, are apt to mislead both Rodin's
public and Rodin's biographers. M. Mauclair, for
instance, illustrates a figure on page 74 and calls
it Primitive Man ; on page 106 it appears again
as A Shade, while M. Rodin's photographer
(spelt, by the way, Buloz) calls it Adam. The
last title is possible ; the last but one reasonable,
since the figure closely resembles one of the three
shades that crown The Gate of Hell ; the first is
a source of confusion, if not a positive mistake.
No title at all is given to the subject on the left
of the plate of page 106, although it is a work of
some interest, being the nude study from which
Rodin constructed the figure of Jacques de Wissant
in the Burghers of Calais.

By far the most valuable and interesting portion
of the book is that in which M. Rodin explains
his own theories.

His criticism of the custom of setting beginners
to study the antique instead of making it the last
part of their course, should be read by every
teacher in a school of art. His account of the
development of his own practice is an admirable
exposition of the progress of sculpture, and of the
principles upon which power of expression maybe
best attained. The case is put with uncommon
clearness and conciseness. It would be difficult,
for instance, to describe a great artist more pithily
than M. Rodin has done in the phrase, 'men of
genius are just those who, by their trade skill,
carry the essential to perfection.' It is impos-
sible to discuss these opinions at length in a
short review; but M. Rodin's criticism should be
invaluable to any art student who has the wit to
make use of it.

SCULPTURE

Auguste Rodin. By Camille Mauclair. Trans-
lated by Clementina Black. Duckworth.
12s. 6d. net.

This volume will be welcome to many English
readers who want to know more about Rodin and
to possess more pictures of his work than they
can find in the one little book (apart from some
good magazine articles) which has been written

The Renaissance of Sculpture in Belgium.
By Oliver Georges Destree. Seeley. 3s. 6d. net.

A re-issue of the Portfolio Monograph origi-
nally published in 1895. The recent death of
Meunier, the greatest of modern Belgian artists,
added to the general revival of the study of
sculpture, gives particular interest to this sensible,
well-illustrated essay on a school of art which
has both vigour and national character to recom-
mend it.

163

Bibliography

PORCELAIN

A History and Description of French
Porcelain. By E. S. Auscher. Translated
and edited by William Burton, F.C.S. Con-
taining twenty-four plates in colour, together
with reproductions of marks and numerous
illustrations. London : Cassell & Co., 1905.
8vo, pp. xiv., 196. £1 10s. net.

Although Messrs. Cassell & Co. never have
promised that the handsome volumes they have
brought out at intervals — each forming a detached
chapter of the history of the ceramic art — would
be followed by other volumes prepared on the
same plan, it is to be hoped that the success
with which the venture has so far been rewarded
will induce the publication of such additional
monographs as are, doubtless, included in the wide
scheme framed by the editor, Mr. William Burton.
When brought to completion, the series will con-
stitute a ceramic cyclopedia of an importance
never approached before. To-day we have to
welcome the appearance of a fresh instalment,
which brings us a step nearer the accomplishment
of that desirable end. Monsieur E. S. Auscher's
history of French porcelain is by no means
inferior to its forerunners, and its incontestable
merit augurs well for what, we may expect, will
shortly follow. It was wise on this occasion to
entrust a French specialist with the task of com-
piling a historical and descriptive book, brought
up to the present state of advanced knowledge, and
free from the erroneous notions which have too
long been allowed to pass unchallenged. No one
was better qualified for the task than M. Auscher,
a well-known writer on ceramics, acquainted with
the contents of the public and private collections
of France, and for ten years director of the manu-
facturing department of the national manufactory
of Sevres.

The captivating tale unfolded in the pages dealing
with the historical part of the subject commands,
in more ways than one, the attention of the English
collector of ceramics. To go over a trustworthy
record of the glories and vicissitudes of the chief
centres of manufacture, to master the main
features through which their productions may be
recognized, is a labour which, undertaken at first
as a duty, will soon prove a source of pleasure.

The account starts with the discovery made at
Rouen by the fa'iencier, Louis Poterat, in 1673, of
an artificial porcelain, sufficiently white and trans-
lucid to be considered as a satisfactory substitute
for the mysterious ware that came from the Far
East. The reader will then be made to follow the
course of the process, which passed successively,
and without undergoing any material alterations,
from Rouen to Saint-Cloud, Lille, Chantilly,
Mennecy-Villeroy, and ultimately reached Vin-
cennes and Sevres, where it was to develop its
highest degree of perfection. While examining

164

the typical examples of the productions of these
various places, a clear-sighted observer will find
much in the quality of the paste, as well as in the
taste of the decoration, which reminds him of the
early china of Bow and Chelsea. From this
recognition there is but one step to the surmise
that a still unacknowledged relationship must have
existed between the old factories of France and
those established later on in England. More than
one inquisitive spirit may feel incited, in con-
sequence, to make an attempt at picking up the
thread which unites our national porcelain works
to their foreign ancestors.

When the narrative enters the portion devoted
to the royal factories of Vincennes and Sevres —
necessarily the most important of the book — the
interest felt by the true china-lover will increase.
He will find himself almost at home with the
subject, for if he has not yet heard all that he
wants to know about the old porcelaine tendre, he
is, at any rate, already familiar with the finest
examples of the ware. Alas for poor France ! by
far the largest and finest portion of her Sevres
china fled from the country during the storm of
social perturbations, never to return to it again.
It is now chiefly in England, at Windsor Castle
and at Hertford House, in the collections of
Lord Spencer, Lord Harewood, Baron A. de
Rothschild, and many other distinguished ama-
teurs, that the matchless porcelaine de France may
be admired in all its splendour.

One would willingly linger over the period when
soft china had acquired right of abode in all
refined households, brightening with multi-coloured
marvels the exquisite appointments of the refined
drawing-room. What was accomplished at Sevres
in the reign of Louis XV, partly under the in-
spiring influence of the Marquise de Pompadour,
has certainly never been surpassed. The discovery
of the Kaolin of Saint-Yrieix, near Limoges, in
1769, and the substitution of a natural for an
artificial porcelain, which was the consequence of
it, opens a new phase in the history of French
porcelain. With the introduction of an undeniable
technical improvement came the artistic decline.
Many were the practical advantages of the hard
paste ; its manufacture had at once been safely
regulated, while the making of pate tendre was still
hampered by risks and accidents which could
never be mastered. It mattered little to the china-
maker if by adopting the new processes the white
porcelain was to lose its creamy whiteness, and
if the colours applied to it would no longer show
the same vivacity of tint and brilliancy of surface ;
this was more than compensated in his estimation
by the greater facility it would bring in the conduct
of manufacture. In consequence of the sudden
transformation of an unstable and often ruinous
trade into a steady and remunerative one, the
number of porcelain manufactories increased with
amazing rapidity. In Paris alone, close on thirty

Bibliography

of them were at work towards the end of the
eighteenth century. They were all making hard
paste ; the body was obtained ready mixed from
Limoges, and made use of in each place without
any appreciable modification. As to the style of
decoration, it seldom departed from close imita-
tions of the most successful patterns created at
the manufactory of Sevres. On that account the
productions of a late period present a similarity of
character, both from the technical and artistic
points of view, which would render an attribution
to their respective maker a matter of great diffi-
culty were it not that, in accordance with State
regulations, each piece had to bear the distinctive
mark of the manufacturer. A great number of
these Parisian marks are included in the general
list ; needless to say that they will prove of great
assistance to the collector.

The chapter dealing with modern forgeries, rank
counterfeits, or genuine pieces skilfully doctored
up, is an original feature in this work ; it will be
read with interest and profit. It brings to our
mind the recollection of the fact that in the
provision of the curiosity market with an ample
supply of spurious Sevres porcelain the English
forger never remained behind his Continental
brethren. This does not, however, appear to be
known in France, for M. Auscher has neglected
to mention it.

A copious set of plates, representing well-
selected specimens, and produced in the best style
of typographic colour-printing, adds much to the
attractiveness and value of the volume.

M. L. S.

EUROPAISCHES PORZELLAN DES XVIII JAHR-

hunderts. Katalog der vom 15. Februar bis
30. April 1904 im Lichthofe des Kgl. Kunstge-
werbe-Museums zu Berlin ausgestellten Por-
zellans. Von Adolf Briining, in Verbindung
mit W. Behncke, M. Creutz, und G. Swar-
zenski. Berlin, G. Reimer, 1904. Roy. 8vo.,
with 15 col. pi. and 25 pi. in black and white.
M. 30.
A retrospective exhibition of European porce-
lain was held at the Industrial Art Museum of
Berlin in the spring of 1904. Much taste and dis-
crimination had been displayed by the organizers
in selecting out of the chief public and private
collections of the country such typical specimens
as would best represent the various styles and
periods of manufacture. No catalogue of the ex-
hibition had, however, been provided. To make
up for a regrettable deficiency and in order that a
lasting record might remain of an assemblage of
fine and rare examples of the ceramic art, never
again to be brought together, a few members of
the committee, with Mr. Briining at their head,
decided to prepare, and ultimately to publish, the
handsome volume now under our notice.

Naturally German porcelain largely predo-

minates, in the descriptive list, over that of other
origin. On this account the book commends itself
to the attention of the English collector to whom
foreign languages are not unfamiliar. We have
still much to learn in England about the minor
porcelain works of Germany. Numerous as they
are, they all stand partially eclipsed, as it were, by
the all-absorbing glory of the royal manufactory
of Meissen, from which they were more or less
directly derived. A brief history of each centre
of manufacture is prefixed to the catalogue. From
the examination of the well-chosen specimens
reproduced on the plates, will be gained a broad
idea of the distinctive characteristics of the pro-
ductions ; further work of identification being
greatly facilitated by the accompanying set of
marks. In short, it may be said that the book
forms a valuable introduction to the study of a
most interesting subject. M. L. S.

FURNITURE

Studies in Ancient Furniture : Couches and
Beds of the Greeks, Etruscans, and
Romans. By Caroline L. Ransom, Fellow
in the University of Chicago. Chicago : the
University Press, 1905. 4to, pp. 128, 30 plates,
53 cuts. $4.50.

This work, by a young American lady who has
studied classical archaeology both at home and
in Europe, deals with a subject which hitherto
has received little attention from writers on Greek
and Roman antiquities. As the authoress points
out in her preface, all previous literature is con-
fined to a few articles in works of an encyclopaedic
character, and research among existing monu-
ments is rendered difficult by the vague and
fragmentary character of the evidence. The in-
dustry and care with which she has collected all
the available representations of ancient beds and
couches, and the judgement shown in weighing the
results obtained, deserve great commendation;
and an interesting practical outcome of her studies
is the attempted restoration of a couch from
Greek vase-paintings as shown in Plate II. This
restoration was worked out by a firm of uphol-
sterers at Chicago, and bears out the accuracy
with which the Greek vase-painters reproduced
small details, though the limitations of their
technical methods often render it difficult to
distinguish what they really intended to show.

Miss Ransom points out that the Greeks and
Romans made no distinction between beds and
couches for social uses, the latter being universal
in dining-rooms and banqueting-rooms on account
of the practice of reclining at meals. But that
chairs and high stools of more or less modern
shapes were also commonly in use is abundantly
clear from the vase-paintings and statues of seated
figures; with these, however, the book is not
concerned. Among the many existing examples

i r >5

"Bibliography

of couches or parts of couches illustrated in this
work few are more interesting than the bronze
bisellici of Pompeii, of which several specimens,
more or less complete, may be seen in the British,
Naples, and other museums. Curiously enough
they have in almost all cases been wrongly re-
stored, and instead of forming, as they really did,
couches of some five or six feet in length with
raised ends for head or arm rests, they usually
appear in the form of four-legged stools, the orna-
mented rests being placed underneath the seats !
These rests are frequently decorated with some
device in relief, most commonly a horse's or
mule's head decked with ivy-wreath and inlaid
collar; others have a swan's head and neck or a
bust of Cupid. The mules' heads were considered
specially appropriate to banqueting couches,
owing to the connexion of that animal with
Bacchus.

Space forbids us to enter into further details of
the very interesting objects here collected, dis-
cussed, and illustrated. The subject-matter is
throughout excellent and scholarly, and we have
only detected a few very trifling errors ; our only
regret is that the book is so frequently marred by
the uncouthness of its style, not to mention some
excruciating Americanisms. H. B. W.

A History of English Furniture. By Percy
Macquoid, R.I., with plates in colour after
Shirley Slocombe, and numerous illustrations
selected and arranged by the author. Vol. I.
The Age of Oak. 11X15 inches, pp. viii, 244.
Fifteen plates in colour. London : Lawrence
and Bullen. £2 2s. net.
This first volume of Mr. Macquoid's work, which
comprises Nos. 1 to v of the monthly parts in
which it is being issued, treats of the first of
the four periods into which the subject has
been divided, which is conveniently and with
sufficient accuracy described as ' The Age of
Oak,' since during the period dealt with oak was
the material chiefly, though not exclusively, used
for furniture in England. The volume brings
us down to the Restoration, and covers the styles
roughly classified as gothic, Elizabethan, and
Jacobean. Of the earlier gothic furniture little or
nothing, as Mr. Macquoid remarks, now survives,
and the surviving pieces are chests and coffers.
Mr. Macquoid includes in his illustrations an
interesting chest of the early part of the fourteenth
century belonging to Mr. MorganWilliams, and the
fifteenth century is represented by several beautiful
pieces. The remarkable chest known as 'Sudbury's
Hutch,' given at the end of the fifteenth century
by a vicar named Sudbury to Louth church, where
it is happily still preserved, is specially interesting
as showing a certain Renaissance influence at an
early date for England. Contemporary pieces, such
as Mr. C. E. Kempe's magnificent cupboard or
the beautiful chests belonging to Messrs. Gill

166

and Reigate, and Mr. A. L. Radford, are purely
gothic. Nothing perhaps is more attractive at this
period than the severely simple linenfold pattern,
of which some fine specimens are illustrated,
notably a cupboard door in which the pattern is
slightly elaborated.

When we reach the sixteenth century the
wealth of fine pieces is so great that it is hardly
possible to select any for special mention. But
we cannot pass over Sir George Donaldson's
exquisite marquetry writing-cabinet, apiece made
probably about the middle of the sixteenth century,
and purely of English workmanship, though
inspired by foreign (probably, as Mr. Macquoid
suggests, Spanish) influence. This remarkable
piece is of English oak, inlaid with English
walnut, rosewood, and other coloured and stained
woods. Its history is an example of the vandalism
of our immediate ancestors ; it was discovered in
the basement of a house in the country, where it
served the children of the family as a rabbit-
hutch ! Fortunately it was little injured, and is
practically in its original state. Mr. Slocombe's
coloured drawings of this and other inlaid pieces
are more successful than the coloured plates of
plain oak pieces. The complete volume now
before us only confirms the opinion stated in our
review of the first monthly part, that the reproduc-
tions in monochrome from photographs are, on the
whole, far more satisfactory and much nearer to
the originals than the reproductions in colour from
Mr. Slocombe's drawings, which fail to reproduce
the oak surface, though they are in many respects
creditable.

In the seventeenth century furniture became
much more common with the growth of com-
fort and luxury, and Mr. Macquoid's illustra-
tions give us an exhaustively representative selec-
tion. It is pleasant to find that so large a number
of finepieces survive in this country not only ingreat
houses such as Hardwick and Knole, but also in
less conspicuous places. Among the most curious
pieces of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries are the chests with representations in
inlay of Nonesuch Palace, Cheam, that wonderful
house which Barbara Palmer destroyed and sold
piecemeal.

We have already in our previous review of
the first monthly part of this work expressed
certain criticisms. The book is not fully adequate
from the archaeological and historical points of
view, and the definitive history of furniture remains
to be written. But from the artistic point of view
the book can be unreservedly praised. The illus-
trations alone (more than two hundred pieces
are figured in this volume) make it indispensable
to the collector of furniture, and for the trouble
and time that he must have spent on discover-
ing and selecting the pieces to be illustrated
Mr. Macquoid deserves the gratitude of every-
one interested in the subject. Only a connoisseur

as keen and well-informed as he is could have
pictured the furniture of the past as it is here
pictured for us, or have described it with so
true an artistic appreciation.

We should like to plead for a more exhaustive
index and a complete list of illustrations. Per-
haps they will be forthcoming at the end of
the publication.

English Furniture Designers of the Eigh-
teenth Century. By Constance Simon.
London : A. H. Bullen. 1905. 25s. net.
Too many of the books pretending to expert art
knowledge which have been called into existence
by the re-awakened interest shown by the public
in such matters remind one forcibly of the refresh-
ment-room sandwich. The bread is often stale,
and what it encloses is of the thinnest and flimsiest
consistency, being neither satisfying nor savour}-.
In Miss Simon's book we occasionally — very occa-
sionally — come across such reminiscences; but
though the book has faults, the faults are its own,
and are not copied parrot-like from other utter-
ances.

From one point of view the book does not de-
serve its title. The bulk of it is composed of
illustrations from a few collections with letterpress
explanatory rather of the pieces chosen than of
the changing styles and fashions. It is not what
has been selected, but what has been ignored, that
renders this latest attempt at the history of eigh-
teenth-century furniture unrepresentative. There
is a want of sequence and continuity, even in the
style, which makes it read too much like a mass
of disjointed notes without a central aim. That
the authoress has a good eye for fine pieces is
abundantly evident from the illustrations, but the
reason for bringing these examples together is not
so obvious.

Some time ago a writer on this subject sug-
gested that many important dates, such as that of
Thomas Chippendale's death, might be found by
dint of careful search among parish and other
records. Few people have both the time and in-
clination for such a task, but Miss Simon has heroi-
cally — I had almost written manfully — stepped into
the breach. If it is easy to point to a lack of
scientific treatment in the work as a whole, it is
impossible to commend too highly the painstaking
research which has been given to the personal
history of some of the old furniture makers.
Registers and dry-as-dust documents in almost
countless numbers must have been examined to
furnish the facts arrived at. Sometimes these are
stated rather baldly, while at others there is a
leaning to the picturesque which leads to trouble.
The story of a quarrel between Chippendale and
the rest of the trade, though originally the merest
guess, has been largely copied by other writers.
Miss Simon now furnishes us with another — quite
as imaginary — between Hepplewhiteand Sheraton.

Bibliography

Ilepplewhite, she tells us, spoke disparagingly of
Sheraton, who retaliated by saying that Hepple-
white's work had already caught the decline, and
perhaps in a little time would suddenly die in the
disorder. This was not retaliation, but unpro-
voked assault, for Hepplewhite was stating an
undeniable fact regarding the books previously
published, which could scarcely refer to the Draw-
ing Book nor even to Sheraton's work, as he, to
take Miss Simon's own date, did not come to
London till some years later. Though thus at-
tempting to strangle an impossible legend in its
infancy, it is only fair to add that this must not
be taken as a sample of Miss Simon's facts, which
are usually most carefully accurate, while in the
matter of dates it will in future be impossible to
write exhaustively of the period without indebted-
ness to her labours. R. S. C.

Chats on Old Furniture. By Arthur Hayden.

Fisher Unwin. 5s. net.
A really good popular book — pleasantly written,
well illustrated, and remarkably cheap. It is also
as trustworthy as can reasonably be expected of
any small book that covers so much ground, for
although we have noticed one or two slips in
Mr. Hayden's chapter on the Stuart period, and
think that the contemporaries of Chippendale
might have been dealt with a little more definitely,
even at the expense of another two pages of letter-
press, the author on the whole is so sensible and
so appreciative of the artistic side of his subject
that such trifling blemishes hardly deserve to be
mentioned.

MISCELLANEOUS

English Embroidery. By A. F. Kendrick.

London : George Newnes, Ltd. 7s. 6d. net.
For a long time we have been much in need of a
work dealing with the subject of embroidery witli
taste and discretion and with the authority of an ex-
pert; Mr. Kendrick'svolumeonEnglishembroidery,
therefore, has been looked for with pleasurable
anticipation since its announcement. Ingivingwhat
necessarily must be a rather curtailed account of
an art that spreads over so many periods, Mr. K< n-
drick has, by a certain reserve of treatment, and
judgement in selection, succeeded in presenting his
subject to us in an interesting and attractive form.
Four chapters treat respectively of the Norman and
Early English Periods, the Great Period (1270-
1330), and the Decline and Revival (about 1330-
1530), and three chapters give an account of the art
in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries, a clear and reasonable arrangement
for a volume containing not much more than a
hundred pages. Without making a definite list of
existing pieces of English embroidery, Mr. Ken-
drick gives useful comments and notes on the
principal examples of this work and tells us where
they are to be found at the present day. The

167

Bibliography

limitation of the subject to English art really
increases the usefulness of the volume : it makes
a harmonious ensemble (which, in homely language,
means a readable book), and it makes it possible
for the student, in looking through the numerous
illustrations, to follow the development of certain
characteristics, the divergence of others, and,
generally speaking, to trace for himself, in the
material thus compactly presented to him, that
indefinite English quality which is so far from
easy to describe in its essence. In the interesting
but all too short chapter on the ' Great Period,'
there are one or two points on which one might
differ from the author ; but matters of opinion are
not matters of vital interest to the public, and I
pass them over, except the following point,
which, though not important, is rather interesting.
In speaking of the characteristic treatment of the
flesh in Opus Attglicanum, the author brings
forward once more the theory of the centre of the
cheek being pressed by a ' heated instrument of
a rounded form.' I am rather sceptical as to
this, as it seems to me that the mere stitching
round and round on a very small scale, and the
subsequent removal of the strain on the material
necessary during working, would induce this sym-
metrical 'cockling' of the surface in the middle
of the cheek. One writer after another makes
this assertion about the heated knob, and none of
them quoting their ultimate authority, I am roused
to make the above suggestion. I am afraid that all
are not quite agreed that the Syon cope stands
' easily first ' among English embroideries.
Beautiful as it is, the Bologna cope strikes a more
individual note among the ' architectural ' copes,
and among the ' circle ' copes that at Steeple
Aston, when uncut and shining with its romantic
wreathing of gold and its splendid angel-borders ;
and the Cope of the Passion at St. Bertrand de
Comminges is more interesting in its ensemble,
with its crisp details like those of a manuscript, and
its rose and pearl colours — a reflection of moon-
light in fairyland. The competition for first place
is an amiable one, however, for all these fine
embroideries have their due importance. In his
chapter on the ' Decline and Revival,' Mr.
Kendrick points out the speedy degeneration of the
art in the fourteenth century — the gothic tradition
emphatic in outward expression, but the spirit
gone. ' The careful embroidering of faces. . . is
seen no longer, and the work generally loses its pre-
cision and fineness.' The next two chapters deal
delightfully with the most delightful art of the six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, and we close the
volume with a pleasant feeling that some of these
pieces, with their light-fingered grace and absence
of set design — nearer to us than the noble work
of the Great Period — are possible achievements
or mortal fingers, that we too might scatter
columbines and roses and ribbons over gowns and
cushions without being guilty of the affectation of

1 68

plagiarism, and with some chance of success. The
choice of illustrations shows a fastidious taste : they
form a very interesting and informing series,
though some of them, especially those of the earlier
period, have suffered from the small scale pre-
scribed by the size of the volume. A good detail,
on the same scale as the very clearly defined one
of the 'Jesse' cope (Plate XVIII), would have
usefully supplemented the rather inadequate plate
of the Steeple Aston piece (Plate XIX). The
coloured plate of Mrs. Buxton's delightful Eliza-
bethan tunic that fronts the volume is full of
charm, but the other coloured plates are not alto-
gether satisfactory. The title-page has a pseudo,
old-world look that is rather depressing to the
simple mind ; but, after all, one does not stop to look
at this, hurrying on to the book itself, whose
matter, entirely delightful, is presented in an
entirely worthy and sympathetic form. M. M.

Last Letters of Aubrey Beardsley. With
an introductory note by the Rev. John Gray.
Longmans, Green & Co. 1904. 5s. net.
' As a contribution to the body of scientific docu-
ments,' says Father Gray of this book in his in-
troduction, ' it is of the first order, for it is the
diary of a keen intelligence concentrated upon its
utterances, without arriere pensee.' Here is
No. XIX. of the ' scientific documents ' literatim
et verbatim : —

' 10 and n, St. James's Place, S.W.
' Tuesday.
' My dear * * *

' I shall be most pleased to come to
lunch to-day.

' Yours

'Aubrey Beardsley.'

Nobody but an autograph collector would pre-
serve such a note ; not even an autograph col-
lector would print it. And this is a specimen
picked out at random ; the book is mainly com-
posed of this sort of thing, and contains hardly a
letter that ought to have been published or is of
the smallest public interest. It is difficult to
avoid the unpleasant suspicion that the recipient
of the letters preserved them with a deliberate
eye to ' copy.'

No light is thrown on Beardsley's art — the only
thing connected with him with which the public
is concerned — except by a chance reference here
and there (such as a request for photographs of
the Brighton Pavilion) which reveals the genuine
' decadent.' There is no trace of a ' keen intel-
ligence concentrated ' on anything, and an un-
pleasant note runs through the numerous pietistic
remarks. Not a note of insincerity ; quite the
reverse. It is just because many of the letters
are self-revelatory that, in justice to Beardsley,
they ought never to have been published. What
right have we to pry into the intimacies of a
dying man, a man dying by inches under circum-

stances which must have impaired his mental
powers ? We have Beardsley's work — the work
of a great artist — and the pleasant knowledge that
an unhappy life ended happily. That is enough.
This book is an outrage alike on Beardsley and
on the public ; it calls for a protest from all who
still respect the canons of a decent reticence.

R. E. D.

Some Old French and English Ballads.
Edited by Robert Steele. Eragny Press, Ham-
mersmith. 35s. net.
We have noticed from time to time the charming
products of Mr. Pissarro's press, which now stands
alone in consistently combining original wood
engraving and colour printing with faultless typo-
graphy. The present volume has a double claim
on the attention, since in it the artist's charac-
teristic talent is employed upon some twenty of
the finest ballads of France and England. These
old songs recall pleasant memories. The English
ballads are almost all established favourites, but
several delightful things will be found in the
French section that are much less familiar. The
music has been taken from the oldest known
copies, and a comparison with more modern
settings indicates that in several cases the change
has entailed a considerable loss of spirit and
character. The little book, in fact, is as interest-
ing as it is outwardly attractive.

Florence : Some Tuscan Cities Painted by
Colonel R. C. Goff. Described by Clarissa
Goff. Black. 20s. net.
This volume of Messrs. Black's handsome series
of coloured picture books is a little unlucky in
the time of its issue. Only a month or two ago
there appeared Mr. Hallam Murray's volume, in-
cluding the same district and illustrated in the
same way. A comparison is inevitable, and Colonel
Goff must feel that the odds are against him.
Mr. Murray's book was not only first in the field,
but was also a thoroughly efficient piece of literary
work. Mrs. Goff's modest preface almost disarms
criticism, but even when judged by a lenient
standard the letterpress of the book is inade-
quate, the more so because it deals with a centre
of art-production on which so much has been
written well. Colonel Goff's drawings show that
he can handle the brush as skilfully as the etching
needle. Perhaps because the process of repro-
duction has heightened his colouring, perhaps
because he himself was less in love with truth
than with effectiveness, it is only in one or two of
the quieter sketches that he conveys the real feel-
ing of the Arno valley. Nor can the Carrara
mountains or a distant cypress be rendered even
by the cleverest of blots ; they must be drawn.
Colonel Goff s work is gay, fresh, and spirited, and
will doubtless appeal to the tourist, but the true
lover of Italy will prefer the more sincere if less
brilliant renderings of Mr. Hallam Murray.

Bibliography

Illuminated Manuscripts. By J. W. Bradley.

Methuen & Co. 2s. 6d. net.
There is an astonishing variety about these little
books on art. Most of them are mere compila-
tions, but here and there one comes across a book
which would be no discredit to a far more elabo-
rate setting. Mr. Bradley's book on Illuminated
Manuscripts belongs to this class. It is at once
methodical, scholarly (at times to the verge of
pedantry), and as complete as any book of the
size could be made. It may thus be recommended
thoroughly.

A General Description of Sir John Soane's
Museum. By Walter L. Spiers. Oxford
University Press. 6d.
A useful little handbook to the contents of Sir
John Soane's House. The Hogarths, the Turner,
and the Watteau have long been known to students
of painting, but this publication ought to be of use
in introducing architects and designers to the
other resources of the museum, which are of no
small importance from their bearing upon modern
fashions in decoration.

BOOKS RECEIVED

A History and Description of French Porcelain. By
E. S. Auscher. Translated and edited by William Burton,
F.C.S. Cassell & Co., Ltd. 30s. net.

Lorenzo Lotto. By Bernhard Berenson. (Revised Edition.)
George Bell & Sons. 7s. 6d. net.

A History of English Furniture — The Age of Oak. By
Percy Macquoid, R.I. Laurence & Bullen. £2 2s. net.

Newnes' Library of the Applied Arts— English Embroidery.
By A. F. Kendrick. George Newnes, Ltd. 7s. 6d. net.

Miniatures. By Dudley Heath. Methuen & Co. 25s. net.

Little Books on Art — Illuminated Manuscripts. By John
W. Bradley. Methuen & Co. 2s. 6d. net.

Giotto. By Basil de Selincourt. Duckworth & Co. 7s. 6d. net.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Twenty-Ninth Annual
Report for the Year 1904. The University Press,
Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.

Critical Studies and Fragments. By the late S. Arthur
Strong, M.A. Duckworth & Co. 16s. net.

Norway. Painted by Nico Jungman. A. & C. Black. 20s. net.

Nuremberg. Painted by Arthur S. Bell. A. & C. Black.
7s. 6d. net.

Catalogue of English Porcelain. By R. L. Hobson, B.A.
Printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum.

La Storia di Venezia nella Vita Privata. Parte Prima.
Editore : Istituto Italiano d' Arti Grafiche, Bergamo.

Rome. Painted by Alberto Pisa. Text by M. A. R. Tuker and
Hope Malleson. A. & C. Black. 20s. net.

Apollon-Gaulgruppen. By N. K. Skovgaard. Williams and
Norgate. 7s. 6d. net.

MAGAZINES, Etc, RECEIVED

Die Graphischen Kiinste, Part 4, 1904, and Parts 1 and 2, 1905
(Vienna). La Rassegna Nazionale (Florence). Rivista
d'Arte, No. 1, January 1905 (Florence). Le Correspondant
(Paris). Sztuka(Wydawca). Revue de 1' Art Chretien (Lille).
Onze Kunst (Amsterdam). Gazette des Beaux-Arts (Paris).
La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosite (Paris). The Kokka,
No. 177 (Tokyo). Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin, April
(Boston). Harmsworth Encyclopx-dia, Part 1 (The Amalga-
mated Press, Ltd., and Thos. Nelson & Sons. 7d. fort-
nightly). The Nineteenth Century and After. The
Fortnightly Review. The Contemporary Review. The
National Review. The Gentleman's Magazine. The Monthly
Review. The Independent Review. The Quarterly Review.
The Edinburgh Review. The Rapid Review. Review of
Reviews.

169

J& RECENT ART PUBLICATIONS r J*

ART HISTORY

Capart (J.). Primitive Art in Egypt. Translated by A. S.
Griffith. (10 x 7) London (Grevel), 16s. net. 208 illus-
trations.

Chatelain (U. V.). Le Surintendant Nicolas Foucquet, pro-
tecteur des lettres, des arts et des sciences. (9 x 6) Paris
(Perrin), 7 fr. 50.

Chytil (K.) Die Kunst in Prag zur Zeit Rudolf II. (11 x 7)
I'rag (Kunstgewerbliches Museum). 80 pp., 32 illustrations.

ANTIQUITIES

Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos, conducted by the British
School at Athens. (11x7) London (Macmillan, for the
Society for the promotion of Hellenic Studies). Illus-
trated.

Koepp (F.). Die Rbmer in Deutschland. (10 x 7) Leipzig (Vel-
hagen & Klasing). 4 m.

An excellent survey of Roman remains and art in Germany.
With 136 illustrations and maps.

Cooper (T. P.). York : the story of its walls, bars, and castles.
(9x6) London (Stock), 10s. 6d. net. Illustrated.

Home (B. J.). Old Houses in Edinburgh, Part I. (16x11)
Edinburgh (Hay), is. net. 3 plates.

Russell (Lady). Swallowfield and its owners. (10x7) London
(Longmans). Illustrations.

Coindre (G.). Le vieux Salins : promenades et causeries.
(9x6) Besancon (Jacquin). Illustrated.

Colasanti (A.). Gubbio. (11x8) Bergamo (Istituto d'Arti
grafiche), 3I. 50. ' Monografie illustrate.' 114 illustrations.

Corradini (E.). Prato e suoi dintorni. (11x8) Bergamo (Is-
tituto dArti grafiche), 3I.50. Illustrated.

Archaeological Survey of India. (13 x 10) London (Qua-
ritch). The inaugural issue of a new annual, containing
beside reports upon conservation, etc., papers upon Man-
dalay Palace, Buddhist Jewellery, Charsada, Tinnevelly.
290 pp., illustrated.

BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS AND MONOGRAPHS
Romdahl (A. L.). Pieter Brueghel der Altere und sein Kunst-

schaffen. (Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen

des Kaiserhauses, xxv, pt. 3.) Vienna (Tempsky).

A separate publication, 87 pp. and 68 excellent repro-
ductions.
Burckhardt (R.). Cima da Conegliano: ein Venezianischer

Maler des Ubergangs vom Quattrocento zum Cinquecento.

(10x7) Leipzig (Hiersemann). Illustrated.
Moore (T. S.). Albert Diirer. (8x5) London (Duckworth),

7s. 6d. net. 53 illustrations.
Paine (A. B.). Th. Nast, his period and his pictures. (9 x 7)

London (Macmillan), 21s. Illustrated.
Mackowsky (W.). G. M. Nosseni und die Renaissance in

Sachsen. (11x8) Berlin (Wasmuth's ' Beitrage zur Bau-

wissenschaft ') 5 m. Illustrated.
Valentiner (W. R.). Rembrandt und seine Umgebung. (12 x 8)

Strassburg (Heitz). 7 plates.
Schubring (P.). Luca della Robbia und seine Familie. (11x7)

Leipzig (Velhagen & Klasing), 4 m. ' Kiinstler-Mono-

graphien.' 172 illustrations.
Mauclair (C). Auguste Rodin, the man, his ideas, his works.

(11x8) London (Duckworth). 10s.6d.net.
Suida (W.). Die Jugendwerke des B. Suardi genannt Braman-

tino. (Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des

Kaiserhauses, xxv, pt. 1.) Vienna (Tempsky).
A separate publication of 72 pp., 52 illustrations.
Daun (B.). P. Vischer und A. Krafft. (10x7) Leipzig (Velhagen

& Klasing), 4 m. 102 illus. ' Kiinstler-Monographien.'
Hasse (C). Roger van der Weyden und Roger van Brugge,

mit ihren Schulen. (12 x 8) Strassburg (Heitz). 15 plates.

ARCHITECTURE

Spiers (R. P.). Architecture east and west, a collection of
essays written at various times during the last sixteen years.
(10x6) London (Batsford), 12s. 6d. net. Illustrated.

Ashby (T., jun.). Sixteenth-century drawings of Roman build-
ings attributed to Andreas Coner. (Forming ' Papers of the
British School at Rome,' 11). London (Macmillan), 30s. net.
170 plates.

Brandes (J. L. A.). Beschrijving van de rui'ne bij de desa
Toempang genaamd Tjandi Djago in de residentie Pasoe-
roean. (14x11). 's-Gravenhage (Nijhoff).

The first vol. published by the Dutch Archaeological
Survey of Java and Madura ; with phototypes, plans, etc.

Guedy (H.). Le Palais du Louvre, exteYieur et interieur
architecture, sculpture, decoration, ensembles et details-
(18x13) Dourdan (Th^zard). Part I, 21 phototypes.

Green (A.). The Eighteenth-Century Architecture of Bath.
(11x9) Bath (Gregory). Illustrated with measured draw-
ings, photographs, and sketches.

PAINTING

Kern (G. J.) Die Grundziige der linear-perspektivischen Dar-
stellung in der Kunst der Gebriider Van Eyck und ihrer
Schule. Vol. I. (n x 8) Leipzig (Seemann). 44 pp., and
diagrams.

Justi (L.). Diirer's Dresdener Altar. (10x6) Leipzig (See-
mann), 1 m. 50. 'Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte.' 7 illus-
trations.

Meder (J.). Zwei Kartonzeichnungen von Giulio Romano.
(Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Kaiser-
hauses, vol. xxv, pt. 2.) 5 pp., 4 illustrations. Vienna
(Tempsky).

Badd-Bovey (D.). Peintres GeneVois (1766-1849), 1: Liotard
Huber, Saint-Ours, De la Rive ; 11 : Tbpffer, Massot, Agasse.
(13x10) Geneve {Le Journal de Geneve). Phototypes.

The Old Water-Colour Society, 1804-1904. Edited by C. Holme.
(12 x 8) London (Studio Offices), 5s. net. 40 colour plates.

A selection from the pictures by Boudin, CSzanne, Degas, Manet,
Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, exhibited by
Messrs. Durand-Ruel and Sons, of Paris, at the Grafton
Galleries. (11x9) Paris (16 rue Lafitte). 42 plates.

Catalogue des dessins, aquarelles, gouaches des ecoles francaise
et anglaise du xviif siecle, miniatures, etc., composant la
Collection de M. A. Beurdeley. Vente a Paris, Galerie
G. Petit, 13, 14, 15 mars 1905. (13 x 10) Paris (P. Cheval-
lier). Illustrated.

SCULPTURE

Bernoulli (J. J.). Die erhaltenen Darstellungen Alexanders des
Grossen. (10x7) Miinchen (Bruckmann). Supplementary
to the ' Greek Iconography.' 49 illustrations.

Konigliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Bildwerke
der Christlichen Epoche. 11. Die Italienischen Bronzen.
(12x9) Berlin (Reimer). 81 phototype plates.

Keyser (C. E.). Norman tympana and lintels, with figure or
symbolical sculpture, still or till recently existing in the
churches of Great Britain. (12x9) London (Stock),
21s. net. 155 illustrations.

Le Musee de Sculpture comparee au palais du Trocadero :
Dernieres acquisitions. (16 x 12) Paris (Guerinet).
51 phototype plates supplementary to the 4 vols, already
published.

Gluck (G.) Uber Entwiirfe von Rubens zu Elfenbeinarbeiten
Lucas Faidherbes. (Jahrbuch des Kunsthistorischen
Sammlungen des Kaiserhauses, vol. xxv, pt. 2.) 7 pp.,
4 illustrations. Vienna (Tempsky).

TEXTILES

Kendrick (A.F.). English Embroidery. (9 x 6) London(Newnes),
7s. 6d. net. ' Library of the Applied Arts.' Illustrated.

Choix de Dentelles faisant partie de la Collection du Musee
historique de Tissus de Lyon : Points d'Alencon, de Valen-
ciennes, de Malines, de Bruxelles. (18 x 13) Paris (Lib.
des Arts decoratifs). 26 plates.

CERAMICS

Auscher (E. S.). A history and description of French Porce-
lain. Translated and edited by W. Burton. (10 x 6)
London (Cassell), 30s. net. 73 plates, 24 in colour, and
facsimile marks.

Bruning (A.). Europaisches Porzellan des xvm Jahrhunderts.
Katalog der Februar- April in Lichthofe des Kunstgewerbe-
Museums zu Berlin ausgestellten Porzellan. (11x8) Berlin
(Reimer). 40 plates, 15 in colour, and facsimile marks.

MISCELLANEOUS
J. A. M c Neill Whistler: Etchings, etc., in the National Art

Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, with a bibliography.

(8 x 5) 24 pp., id.

The bibliography is the fullest yet published.
Stassof (V.) and Gunzburg (D.). Ornementation des anciens

manuscrits h^breux de la Bibliotheque impenale publique

de St. P<5tersbourg. (23 x 19) Berlin (Calvary), 120 m. 27

chromo-lithogr., and 16 pp. text.
Muller (K. F.). Der Leichenwagen Alexanders des Grossen.

(10x6) Leipzig (Seemann). ' Beitrage zur Kunstgeschichte.'

1 Sizes (height x width) in inches.

I70

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■ //i/ /an n/-. /hi/-,y 'J r/J/

j& EDITORIAL ARTICLE
THE EXTINCTION OF THE MIDDLE-CLASS COLLECTOR

N anonymous writer in a
recent number of The
Academy calls attention to
a state of affairs which de-
serves serious considera-
tion from a national, as
well as from an artistic, standpoint. The
case is best stated in the writer's own
words : —

In former days there were patrons, often of
obscure origin, self-made men, and sometimes not
even men of great wealth, who bought without
any idea of speculation, simply on their own judge-
ment. Such were the first patrons of Turner —
Joseph Gillott, Dr. Munro, Elkanah Bicknell.
Even as late as the pre-Raphaelites there were to
be found many patrons entirely independent of
dealers and markets, who had the courage of and
the reward for backing their own opinions. But
a gradual change has been observable of late years.
The middle classes appear to have concluded that
original pictures are entirely beyond the means of
persons with a moderate income; they would no
more think of buying a picture than they would a
pleasure yacht or a motor-car, and content them-
selves with photogravures. The wealthy, on the
other hand, appear to consider picture-buying
merely in the light of an investment, and all they
want is a safe thing like Preference stock. Since
it has been proved over and over again of recent
years that even the official stamp of the Royal
Academy is not a sufficient guarantee of the
security of the investment, and they have no other
standard to go by, they have finally restricted
their purchases to the established reputations —
what we roughly call the Old Masters, including,
of course, our own Reynolds, Morland, etc.

It is to be feared that the facts stated
areonly too true, but we are notsure thatthe
whole of the blame for this decay of British
taste and spirit and independence of judge-
ment can be charged to the British public.
Indeed, if the evil be traced to its source,
it will be found, we think, that artists
themselves are chiefly responsible.

We need not go back to the days ot
Dr. Munro. It will be enough for our
purpose if we consider who were the
great English art patrons of the fifties and
sixties. They were the men who were

The Burlington Magazine, No. 27. Vol. VII— June 1905.

then making fortunes in commerce, either
in London or in Lancashire. They spent
their money freely, asking for the best
obtainable work, and trying to get it
either from a big dealer or from the one
big art exhibition known to them. The
Royal Academicians of the time naturally
could not discourage these laudable en-
deavours. Acting with the wonderful
esprit de corps which has always distin-
guished their body, they passed each
purchaser on from friend to friend, with
the stimulus of an occasional invitation to
an academy banquet, until his desire for
art was satisfied and his pockets duly
lightened. Patron succeeded patron, and
there seemed no end to the golden harvest.

The fashionable painters could hardly
keep pace with the commissions that
poured in. Some had started with genuine
and serious ideals, most of them with a fair
standard of workmanship. Ideals and
workmanship soon had to be thrown away
in the hurry to get rich. Those who were
really talented became mediocrities, the
mediocrities became absurdities, but still
the tide of patronage flowed. Fortunes
were made by which painters could house
themselves in palaces more splendid than
those of their patrons, while the pictures
they produced grew more and more
tawdry and superficial.

Then came years of depression, notably
in the cotton trade, accompanied by the
death of old patrons and the succession of
sons who wanted cruder and cheaper plea-
sures than academy banquets. The paintings
accumulated with so much pomp and pub-
licity began to come into the market.
For years the dealers concerned struggled
bravely with the torrent, buying what the
public would buy no longer, and working
municipal and colonial galleries for all
they were worth. These last strongholds
of ignorance, however, were not rich
enough to absorb all that was required of

173

The Extinction of the tMiddle-Qlass Collector

them, while the painters who had made
fortunes declined to back in the sale-rooms
the pictures they had recommended to
their patrons. Many, indeed, were already
unable to do so, as their resources were
strained by an extravagant standard of
living, and by the absence of new com-
missions. At last the cellars of Bond
Street were so full that the dealers could
no longer afford to continue their support.
Prices immediately fell and continued to
fall, until the collapse became so sensa-
tional as to be past all concealment, with
the result that a large section of the
purchasing public was absolutely frightened
away. If titles and prestige were no
guarantee against the purchase of a picture
being a disastrous loss, it was clearly absurd
to buy any pictures at all.

This decline in the value of the academic
painters of the seventies has now long
been understood by the most intelligent
section of the public. The enlighten-
ment of the great remainder must take
time. Nevertheless, there are signs that
the larger provincial towns are beginning
to take their art collections more seriously.
Glasgow has been conspicuously for-
tunate in legacies, Birmingham in the
energy of its art administration. Man-
chester has recently taken a commend-
able step in search of a better standard, and
that step will give the cue to other gal-
leries in the north which have hitherto
almost uniformly wasted their substance on
worthless pictures.

It is no use blaming the Royal Academy
of to-day for mistakes made thirty years
ago. At the same time the sooner that
the Academy and the younger societies
review the whole position calmly the better
for our national art. For this reason it is
of supreme importance that artists should
be able to meet on a common ground,

and resolve upon some joint action to put
things on a sane and healthy footing in-
stead of wasting time in abusing each other.

If a trial could be made of a united
exhibition under the roof of the Royal
Academy, as suggested by Mr. MacColl
in the National Review for last month, an
immense amount of good might result.
The Royal Academy could once more
play its part as host to the best artistic
talent of the nation, instead of being de-
serted by it ; while the juxtaposition of the
rival artistic societies, each hanging its own
section, would go far to remove the mis-
understandings and quarrels which damage
both academicians and outsiders in the
eyes of the intelligent public.

More important still would be the con-
sequent reduction in the mass of work now
exhibited. In England the good artist is fast
being crowded out by a host of incompetents
and amateurs. The veriest ignoramus can
hold his one-man show in a Bond Street
Gallery if he likes to pay for it, and can
join some society of nonentities which
holds one or two annual exhibitions, even
when he does not by some lucky chance
evade an overworked hanging committee.

Amid the deluge of advertisements and
puffing paragraphs written by critics who,
without a label, could not distinguish
between a daub and a masterpiece, it is no
wonder that the collector is shouted into
inaction, especially if he reads in an adja-
cent column that the idols of a previous
generation have once more sold for a mere
song at Christie's. A hundred years hence
no doubt the wheat will be separated from
the tares, but unless our artists accelerate
the process by taking united action they
are not likely to rid themselves quickly of
their present difficulties or gain for them-
selves and the nation the recognition which
their best talent deserves.

TEMPERA PAINTING

BY ROGER E. FRY J&

HE exhibition of works
by the Tempera Society
which will open towards
the middle of the month
at the Carfax Gallery in
Bury Street is an inter-
esting evidence of the
attempt to revive old and almost forgotten
methods of technique. As far as the
theory of tempera painting went the re-
searches of Sir Charles Eastlake and Mrs.
Merrifield had already done much, but the
diffusion of a practical knowledge of the
art dates from Mrs. Herringham's publica-
tion of a translation of Cennino Cennini's
Trattato with valuable explanatory notes.
How complete the ignorance of a former
generation was on the subject of early
technique may be understood from the
fact that until Ruskin found Mrs. Her-
ringham copying in tempera at the
National Gallery and questioned her as
to what she was about, he was under
the impression that Botticelli and all the
Italian primitives painted in oils. There
were of course plenty of people who knew
the difference between the appearance of
a painting in oil and one in tempera, and
probably in Italy the tradition has never
quite died out ; but it had become almost
entirely a matter for the antiquarian and
the forger. But now the attempt is being
made to revive the process as a practical
one for artists, and a few words on the
distinctive qualities and limitations of the
medium may be of interest.

For details we must refer our readers to
Mrs. Herringham's book, but the essential
point of the method may be briefly stated.
It consists in mixing the dry powdered
colours with yolk of egg, slightly thinned
with acetic acid or water, instead of mixing
the colours with oil or varnish as in the
case of oil painting. The colours thus
mixed are usually laid on a priming of
gesso, though other grounds may be used.

The great difficulty ot the method arises
from the rapid, almost instantaneous drying
of the colour. This prevents anything like
fusion of one colour into another dans la
pate, as is the practice with modern oil
painters.

It follows therefore that transitions of
tone or colour must be made by hatched
strokes, or else by continually laying one
thin coat over another until the transition
is produced. The method is suited there-
fore to a well-ascertained design with
clearly-marked contours rather than to
vague and 'soft' effects. It is in fact a
method in which the decorative element of
design, together with naturalism of de-
tailed forms, must predominate rather than
the naturalism of the general effect.

On the other hand, tempera is incapable
of producing the hard and cutting edges
that occur in oil painting, and this because
of a very remarkable property, namely, the
comparative transparency of even opaque
colours when mixed with yolk of egg.
Perhaps the greatest and most singular
beauty of tempera arises from this fact.
And the greatest masters of tempera used
white almost as a glaze. Thus, in some
cases, one may find a robe painted in the
following manner. The whole has been
laid in in an even flat brilliant red, the
shadows will be laid over this with a darker
mixture of the same colour, but still with
opaque colour, while the lights may be
made by merely hatching white over the
middle tint. This will not produce the
cold, unpleasant bloom that it would in
oils,but a peculiar mellow opalescence with
the red local colour still predominating and
telling through the white glaze. In short,
the peculiarity of tempera is its extra-
ordinary transparency. On the other hand,
owing to the quickness of the drying the
glazing of really transparent colours, though
perfectly possible, and often practised, is not
so successful as in an oil or varnish medium.

175

Tempera fainting

These peculiarities fit tempera for the
expression of certain aspects of nature rather
than others. The real beauty of oil paint-
ing, now for some time neglected, consists
in its power of rendering effects of deep
translucent colour. There are in fact com-
paratively few effects of nature which lend
themselves to quite literal rendering in oil
paint in such a way as to bring out its
characteristic and superlative beauties. For
these are at their highest when the picture
is painted in a comparatively low key of
saturated transparent colour. The effects
of nature which admit of being rendered
at all truthfully in such deep transparent
colours are first of all effects of low sun-
light with the eye directed towards the
sun. We then get intense transparent
warm lights in the sky itself with deep
warm silhouetted forms against it. Such
effects, for example, as may be seen in
works by Claude, Both, and Cuyp. Beside
these effects of transmitted light which do
generally conform to the distinguishing
beauties of oil paint we may have effects
of reflected light and colour where the sun,
being near to setting, tones all the local
colours to an intense warm glow. Such
effects, though treated with some licence,
are to be found among the Venetian
painters. While yet again effects which
approach to that of artificial light are also
admirably adapted to a rendering in oil —
such, for instance, as Rembrandt and many
of the eighteenth-century English painters
employed.

But the majority of effects of open-air
nature are, if we look at them quite frankly,
unfitted for rendering in oil with any due
regard for its characteristic beauties. Such
effects, for instance, as the powdered-grey-
ness of noon sunlight or the tenderer greys
of evenly-spread clouds, the crumbled

greys of ancient masonry, or the lichenous
greys of old tree-trunks and weathered
beams ; all these, which make up so large
a part of what appeals to us in nature, lend
themselves particularly to a rendering in
tempera.

It is perfectly true that all these effects
are constantly rendered by modern painters
with great truth in oils, but only at the
cost of the material beauty of their picture
surfaces. Oil paint in a high key tends
always to become chalky; whereas tempera,
while it vies with oils in the richness of its
deep tones, is indisputably supreme in the
higher keys. Everyone must be familiar
with the peculiar beauty of the skies in
early Italian art, the exquisite pearly
luminosity they display near the horizon,
a beauty of which Ruskin once complained
that the secret was lost. The secret lay
simply in the use of tempera ; for while
such an effect in oil would almost in-
evitably be chalky and cold, it may easily
be rendered in tempera with perfect mel-
lowness and purity.

Indeed, one may sum up the whole ques-
tion of tempera as a medium by saying
that whereas it is more difficult than in
oil painting to produce any effect at all, it
is yet far more difficult, almost impossible
indeed, to produce with tempera those
thoroughly ugly and uninviting surfaces
which it requires profound science to avoid
in the clayey mixtures of oil paint. It is
not to be hoped that any change of medium,
any technical recipes, could purify the mass
of modern painting of its incurable vul-
garity of sentiment, its bad ethos, but
nothing would be likely to have a more
restraining and sobering influence on our
art than the substitution of tempera for
oils as the ordinary medium of artistic
expression.

J»* CONSTANTIN MEUNIER J*
I-PERSONAL REMINISCENCES, BY PROF. R. PETRUCCI 1

these days when he has newly gone

HE work of Constantin
Meunier corresponded so
particularly to certain
aspects of his time, and
evoked so grandly that
obscure world of toil, the
dull murmur of which
surges in the ears of modern society like a
threat, that even in his lifetime studies of
it were numerous, and criticism fastened
upon it with the conviction that the inner-
most recesses of that mind were easy to
penetrate. There may be some truth in
that point of view so far as concerns the
imposing, the broad and obvious side of
his art. It is so simple and so clear that
he who runs may read. It has nothing of
the cryptic symbolism, the morbid precio-
sity by means of which modern schools
have sometimes attained an artificial origi-
nality. It is mighty, too, in its statement
of its message ; it has the beauty which
there is no mistaking, because of the pro-
found emotion it arouses. But I believe that
there are still certain new ideas to be ex-
pressed concerning Constantin Meunier,
ideas that are contained in his work and
are to be read in it.

Here, however, I desire to do no more
than to contribute to the question what
may be drawn from the evidence of
Meunier himself. I had the honour to be
closely acquainted with him for a period
of nearly ten years, during which, when
the day's work was over and the light fail-
ing in the studio, I was sometimes privi-
leged to hear him summon up, in intimate
conversation, the memories of the past.
From those conversations I drew an im-
pression of his youth, his history, and his
development which no critical study of him
has yet offered me ; and it has occurred to
me that to record that impression would be
the most genuine tribute that those who
loved him could pay to his memory in

1 Translated by Harold Child.

from us.

Constantin Meunier retained till his
latest hour a singular youthfulness of spirit
and glow of life. He never renounced his
desire for self-renewal, for the power to
see through things and their perpetual
changes, to the mighty force of nature.
He was anything but dilHcult of approach,
and those who attained to intimacy with
him saw in him not a master shrined in
glory, but a comrade who sprang to life
whenever there appeared some connexion
between the matter of the talk and the
conception of art to which he had devoted
his whole being.

That conception may be said to have
dominated his life. It enabled him to come
through periods of great trial without
yielding to the exigencies of want. In his
wife he had the surest prop for a character
and desires such as his. Meunier's was not
an unhappy nature, but he was given to
mournful reverie : few things could rouse
him to animation except those concerned
with his art. In his wife he found the
gaiety he lacked, and an active energy that
could grasp the aim of his labours and
give him the moral support necessary to
the pursuit of it when, in his hours of de-
pression, low spirits threatened to sterilize
him. When he lost two sons, one after
the other, his grief left him in a state of
stupor in which his thoughts wandered
in aimless dreaming. He himself told me
how one day his wife put a little earth in his
hands, pushed him, almost by physical force,
to his work, and so saved him, by awaking
his interest anew, out of the despair into
which he had allowed himself to drift.

The energy that was ever ready at his
side Meunier had in himself as well.
Three years ago he suffered from the
cardiac exhaustion, the relaxed organic
functions, which time inevitably brings.
Yet he never ceased to produce. I le was

Q l 77

Constantin Meunier

still at work on the eve of his death ; he
was actually getting up to begin work
when he was seized, suddenly, with syn-
cope of the heart.

That moment found him in a singular
frame of mind. He felt new ideas, ideas
of greater power and freedom, springing
up in him. Aged artists are too often hide-
bound in a technique which becomes a
manner, devoid of inspiration and the fresh-
ness of creative impulse. In Meunier, on
the contrary, imagination was as strong as
it had ever been. He saw a new future
before him. He used often to tell me that
he would like to have another life at his
disposal, that he felt himself on the point
of realizing a conception very different
from that which gave us so many master-
pieces. This astonishing vitality never
yielded to physical fatigue. At seventy-
four years of age, while he was at work
on the large figures in his Monument to
Labour, he was to be seen mounting ric-
kety scaffoldings (which he used to erect
on a plan of his own, by piling up empty
packing-cases) with an obstinacy and im-
prudence of which nothing could cure him.
One day he had just succeeded, with some
difficulty, in covering the great figure of
the blacksmith with wet cloths, and was
clambering down from the wooden plat-
form on which the heavy statue stood,
when I saw this enormous mass, ill-
supported by an iron bar, the rivets of
which had worked loose, come crashing
down beside him. There was a month's
work wasted. And yet, half-an-hour later,
all he thought of was to get the workmen
in so that he could go back to his work as
soon as possible. The figure, which was
sketched twice, shows no trace of fatigue ;
it exhales all the grandeur, poignancy, and
profundity of feeling which rise from every-
thing he did.

It follows from Meunier's own state-
ments that in the history of his life and
thought there was a unity which criticism

178

has missed In his youth he entered the
studio of Fraikin, a sculptor who carried
on in Belgium the attenuated tradition of
the classic schools. His distaste for such
art led Meunier to abandon sculpture. In
those days he was acquainted with a group
of young, ardent, and promising painters,
many of whom left their mark behind
them. Meunier was attracted by this
movement, this youth and effort. He used
to say that the period during which he
devoted himself exclusively to painting had
brought him out of the studio, and led him
to the observation of nature. But he felt
that he had always been at bottom a sculp-
tor. He said so himself, and would ex-
plain thus the suddenness with which, on
his return much later to sculpture, he
picked up the broad and simple technique
which mark his manner.

In those distant days Meunier paid a
visit to the Trappist monastery at West-
malle in the plain of Campine. He was
then in a period of investigation, and, to
use his own words, ' did not know where
he was going.' And here it was that he
had his first revelation of the world of
labour. At the Trappist monastery there
were Fathers whose lives were purely
contemplative, and Brothers who were
occupied in many kinds of industrial and
agricultural kinds of work. There were
blacksmiths' forges and carpenters' shops ;
they made boots and shoes and printed
great missals. Meunier worked in these
various workshops, striving to fix the atti-
tudes of manual effort amid the grave
abstraction of the religious life.

It was at the same period, according to
his own account, that he received a pro-
found impression of the greatness of modern
industry. One of his friends was em-
ployed at the glass factory in the Val Saint-
Lambert. Meunier spent some time there;
and it was there, he used to tell me, that
the vision of labour conquered him. He
made drawings on the spot of these glass-

INTERIOR Of \ i ' i . ! ',

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furnaces: pastel

PLATE I. DRAWINGS BY

INT1N MEUNIER

workers and miners whom he saw now for
the first time. From the Val Saint-Lam-
bert he brought back studies, water-colours,
sketches, and a few pieces of painting, all
of which have been since dispersed. He
himself never knew what had become of
these earliest sketches of work that was to
win so much glory. They formed the
starting-point of the idea which he de-
veloped. He has told me with a smile
that many of the pictures and statues so
eagerly sought for in later years were
founded on motifs and attempts that had
taken shape at that time, but had been
allowed to pass unregarded. That was
the case, notably, with his picture, The
Descent into the Mine.

He exhibited his earliest sculptures at
Brussels in 1880. It was in Paris some
years later that he leaped into success,

Constantin Meumer

and set the seal on a fiime that continues
steadily to increase. The reward of his
labours came to him full late. And yet,
in spite of the general opinion of criticism
in assigning so late a date to the conception
by which, it would have us believe, he
found his right road, it is clear to a dis-
criminating mind that he had found that
road in his earliest youth, and had followed
it faithfully in spite of all the uncertainties
of his destiny. Later, when the admirable
series of drawings which he showed to
few, but which I was privileged to see,
come to be studied closely, they will prove
the confirmation of that unity of concep-
tion which directed his life. Then at last
we shall be in a position to pay his memory
the full homage of an admiration that
was destined to be awarded him far too
late.

II-HIS AIM AND PLACE IN THE ART OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY, BY CHARLES RICKETTS

The art of Puvis de Chavannes, Rodin,
and Constantin Meunier renews the great
passionate tradition of the first half of the
nineteenth century. These men accept
greater responsibilities and face greater
issues than their most advanced and influen-
tial contemporaries : theirs is a larger out-
look upon art and life. If we turn to the
work done in the seventies by other artists
of the first and second rank, who at first
sight might seem the most opposed in
aim, however delightful we may consider
them — to Menzel and Manet for instance,
or to Fortuny and Degas — wefind the paint-
ing of detail and the matching of tones,
the observation of tricks of character and
movement, the anatomy of clothes, or the
novelties of occasional effects. Art had
become the expression of the superficialities
of things, of the strangeness and glitter of
life, seen with something of the mordant
v/it of good journalism interviewing actual-

ity. The main tendency in the latter third,
or even half, of the nineteenth century was
a reaction against great art. 2 The aim of
painting was to astonish or charm : in its
tendency it had become ' genre,' crossed
by the landscape art of the man who travels
in search of the picturesque. In sculpture
the study of a model holding an attribute
is largely the subject matter of Falguiere,
and even Fremiet.

If the two major men, Courbet and
Carpeaux, who form the link between the
earlier and later art movements of the cen-
tury, retained a certain dignity in method
and handling ; if both remain in their gifts
superior to their general aims, the more
significant and passionate effort of earlier
masters, such as Delacroix and Millet, had
become a thing of the past. The greater
tradition is renewed once more by Puvis

J In this article the writer has not included England in hi*
estimate of European tendencies.

l8l

Constantin Meunier

de Chavannes in painting, by Rodin in
sculpture, and in the work of the last
comer, Constantin Meunier. To each we
owe a reconstruction of the plastic conven-
tions ; they have rendered more synthetic
and expressive the language of art, and freed
it from mental habits of the note-book and
study from nature. In the place of inci-
dental facts, small verities of effect seen in
the theatre and the studio, we find once
more the expression of the beauty of essen-
tial things, human effort, tenderness and
meditation, work, pain and desire, and
above all, that essential sincerity of work-
manship which frees art from the chance
charms of the sketch, and the curiosities of
the unattached intelligence.

Meunier's sculpture is on a level of effort
with the great perpetual tradition which
remoulds facts and grasps essentials ; his
work is concentrated and rhythmic in
aspect, sober in detail, and noble in the
rendering of relief and surface. If in his
sympathy for daily life and action he re-
minds one of the temper in which those
sober craftsmen carved the Labours and the
Months on gothic cathedrals, in the expres-
sive control of his motives — man working
or at rest, and stamped by the characteris-
tics of his caste and habits of thought — he
is classical also.

Like many modern masters Meunier
was late in finding his formula, and in free-
ing himself from contemporary influences.
There was the inevitable insufficiency of the
early modern training to be supplemented
by personal effort and discovery, there was
the inevitable battle for existence (for the
right to be an artist), and the waiting in
patience for opportunity, in a period which
has lost the traditional use for art.

Meunier started life as a painter, and to
the last he would turn for change to his
brushes and chalks. In these two mediums
he is always individual and stimulating, if
a little occasional and experimental. The
value of his pictures and pastels lies in

182

a sort of austerity in the using of dry
paints and chalks to render the gaunt
silhouettes of a worker, seen as it were in
mid-distance, and the aspects of the land
of the factory and mine. His experience
as a painter in all probability counted in
his faculty as a sculptor for remembering
movement, and escaping from the con-
ditions imposed upon the common crafts-
man who works from a posing model,
conditions which make the sole standard
of popular academic sculpture.

Meunier was over forty when he exhi-
bited his statue Le Marteleur, which
remains on the whole his most typical
achievement ; but from this work onward
to the great gaunt ancestral workman in
the last Salon there is a continuous pos-
session of his method, and an unswerving
continuity of aim. Once or twice, in Le
Pardon, the Ecce Homo, the Supplice,
he moves into other fields, but these works
belong to the same austere art. They are
large and square in plane and saliences, like
his other statues and statuettes.

The major influence of suggestion on
Meunier came from thepaintingsof Millet ;
to the peasant painter he owes the discovery
of the plastic value of the worker ; to him
we also owe the re-discovery of that beau-
tiful convention which accents the major
forms while sacrificing the more trivial
details.

In the evolution of Millet's practice we
can trace the influence of the synthetic
and ' leonine ' drawing of Delacroix, and of
Daumier, another imaginative and emphatic
draughtsman. These two contemporary in-
fluences count in Millet's early works for an
intenser element, which tends to disappear
in his later drawings, which are less ener-
getic, if always solemn and austere. It is
in the energetic figure of Millet's Sower
that we find the forerunner of many of
Meunier's workmen. Yet if there is a
certain kinship of aim between the two
men the mood of each remains different.

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Millet's work is placid and brooding in
temper ; he expresses all the gravity of
work and the gravity of repose. Meunier
interprets energy and concentration of pur-
pose, both in action and in rest ; his human
type is not placid, but seared and steeled
by effort. The brooding type created by
Millet of a humanity bent towards the
ground, has given place to one in which
the very bones of the brow have become
projected by the effort of a constant will,
the flesh is sparse, and the clothes have
become almost abstract by their adaptation
to active work — as if moulded by the sweat
of the furnace and the mine.

The bucolic temper of the master of
Barbizon broods constantly round a central
woman-type ; he paints by preference the
woman who moulds the bread ; above all
things he remains the painter of maternity ;
in this he stands apart, even from the
gravest and most ecstatic painters of the
Madonna ; this is his province or his con-
quest in the history of art ; this is his
discovery, like the 'aspiration' expressed
in the work of Michael Angelo, or the
' disillusion ' expressed in the paintings of
Rembrandt.

With Meunier, though one of his latest
works is the large decorative figure, La
Maternite, we find an active and virile
habit of thought in which woman hardly
figures at all. Glance at his work, it ex-
presses male energies as constantly (almost
as exclusively) as Donatello ; the enchant-
ing little Hiercheuse, one of his most
popular statuettes, is an excursion into the
exquisite and strange in form ; with her
mining breeches, her boyish gesture and
face, she is almost sexless. The tragic
woman in Le Grisou is the ' ancestress,'

Constantin Meunier

with sunken eyes and crumpled hands ; she
expresses all the compassion of one who
has borne and suffered, and who watches,
with no word left, the wrecking of a life
and the nothingness of hope and youth.
The dominant motive of Meunier's work
expresses a passionate patience. His success
asasculptor lies inhisgrasp of motive, plane,
and silhouette. Many of his masterpieces,
such as Le Marteleur, Le Puddleur, Le
Lamineur, Le Mineur au Travail, impress
one as typical figures, not as seen incidents;
they are new in subject and memorable
for their simplicity and intensity. His
modelling is large and square in plane,
sober in the variations of the surfaces by
which detail is indicated or withheld. A
certain monotony of facial type should not
blind us to the variety in movement, the
variety in the structure of the torsoes and
the scale of the arms, variations which are
stamped upon the human body by work
and the habits of life, and not by mere
dumb-bell exercise which forms the standard
of proportion to the art-student and the
academic sculptor. Single in aim, Meunier
is never didacticorsentimental ; his workers
do not shake their fists at the cosmos. The
sincerity and directness of his method is one
with its dignity of purpose ; hence that
perfect good luck in the result which we
art-lovers call Style ; hence the unity in works
as divergent in mood as the Hiercheuse
and L'Homme Blesse, the Heroic head
called Anvers, and the Ecce Homo.
Meunier has rehabilitated the tragic dignity
of work, human patience and will battling
at its task ; he is the recorder of man as he
watches and strives, silent in his work, per-
sistent, undemonstrative, grave in life, and
mute before death.

FITZHENRY'S COLLECTION OF EARLY FRENCH

pAte-tendre

BY C. H. WYLDE

MR. J. H.

NE of the most remark-
able facts in connexion
with the study and collec-
tion of specimens of the
ceramic art, especially in
j reference to porcelain, is
the systematic neglect in this country of
the cultivation of the knowledge of early
French soft paste, or, to give it its native
name, pate-tendre. This neglect is the
more difficult to understand in view of the
immense popularity of the study of porce-
lain in England, and therefore of the fact
that it must be common knowledge that
the manufacture of porcelain was perfected
on the Continent long before its production
was even attempted in this country.

This circumstance of the neglect of the
study of French porcelain would be the
more easy to comprehend if the early
productions of the English ceramists had
shown marked superiority to those of the
Continent, but far from such being the
case the results of the first years of Bow
and Chelsea are crude specimens of the
potter's art when compared with the beau-
tiful little vessels which emanated from the
fabriques of the Poterats at Rouen, and of
Chicanneau at St. Cloud, nearly half a
century before Bow and Chelsea had been
heard of in connexion with the manufac-
ture of porcelain. We find that already
by the end of the seventeenth century the
French potters of Rouen and St. Cloud
were turning out small vases, chocolate
cups, tea sets, etc., of exquisite design, and
faultlessly executed both as regards firing
and glaze. In proof of this it is only
necessary to compare the beautiful little
specimens, figs. 13 and 17 on Plate III, with
a typical example of early Bow porcelain,
such as one of the well-known inkstands
inscribed 'Made at New Canton, 1750,'
to note the imperfections of the first years
of the English experiments as compared

188

with the technical excellence achieved by
the French half a century earlier. It may
reasonably be objected that it is an unfair
comparison to place the earliest attempts
in the manufacture of English porcelain
alongside specimens emanating from a
foreign factory firmly established after
years of experimental work, in a settled
method of manufacture. For the purposes
of comparing the technical skill of the
potters of the two countries it would not
be a fair test, but it will be granted as per-
missible to prove the fact that up to the
middle of the fifth decade of the eighteenth
century the potters of this country were
still groping in the obscurity of experi-
mental stages towards the solution of the
mystery of porcelain, whilst our nearest
neighbours had half a century earlier suc-
cessfully solved the riddle and produced
porcelain of sufficiently fine quality to be
described by Dr. Martin Lister in his
'Account of a Journey to Paris in 1698 '
as ' equal if not surpassing the Chinese in
their finest art.'

To Mr. J. H. Fitzhenry is due the
honour, not only of having brought to-
gether by years of indefatigable industry
both in England and the Continent prob-
ably the finest collection of French pate-
tendre in the United Kingdom, but also of
having afforded, by his munificent gene-
rosity, the opportunity to connoisseurs and
the art-loving public in general of be-
coming acquainted with some of the most
charming specimens of the French cera-
mists' skill by his loan to the Victoria and
Albert Museum of a very representative
collection of early French porcelain, in
which practically every French factory
which had any importance is exemplified,
from the Rouen works founded in 1673
down to the hard porcelain factory of the
duke of Orleans established at Pont-au-
Choux in 1786. Although this collection

EARLY FRENCH ' PATE TENDRE '
IN THE COLLECTION OF MR. J.
II. FITZHENRY. PI A 1 "E 1

has been exhibited in the ceramic gallery
of the museum for several years past, it has
up to the present time attracted but little
comment in the press. Yet it is only by
a thorough knowledge of the history of
the development of continental porcelain
that our English productions can be
properly understood, and the opportunity
given by Mr. Fitzhenry's generous loan,
which it is in his power to remove at any
moment, is one of the extremely rare
chances afforded to students and collectors
in this country of seeing and comparing
the various products of the early French
factories.

Though Mr. Fitzhenry's Collection in
the Victoria and Albert Museum is tho-
roughly representative, yet it nevertheless
forms only a small portion of the splendid
series which his unremitting energy has
succeeded in bringing together, and it has,
therefore, been considered advantageous to
illustrate this article from specimens in his
private museum at Queen Anne's Gate, as
this course affords the reader an opportu-
nity of making the acquaintance of pieces
which are less accessible than those on loan
to the nation.

Commencing in chronological order we
will first notice the two specimens on
Plate III already referred to, namely figs. 13,
17. The shapes and decoration are abso-
lutely typical of the St. Cloud factory, to
which these pieces can be safely attributed.
The blue borders of scallop devices and
scrolls show the strong oriental influence
which was paramount in the decoration of
all early European porcelain, the reason for
this characteristic being that the very
origin of the manufacture of porcelain in
Europe was due to the emulation excited
by the importation of immense quantities
by the Dutch and Portuguese merchants
trading with China and Japan. At the
same time the style of the decoration of
the porcelain of St. Cloud is undeniably
distinctly imbued with a reminiscence of

Early French Pate-tendre

the Rouen lambrequin, which maintained
for so long a period its position as the
chief decorative motif both on the porce-
lain and on the faience wares of that famous
factory.

The presence of these lambrequins on St.
Cloud porcelain almost certainly proves that
Chicanneau, the founder, had been at some
time connected with the Poterats' works
at Rouen, and this hypothesis is farther sup-
ported by the fact of the name Chicanneau
being found on the list of the painters
employed at the Rouen fictory. 1 The tea-
pot (fig. 17) is frankly imitated from a
Chinese example, and while the modelling
of the prunus branches on the body and of
the flower loses nothing when compared
with its Chinese original, the exquisite tex-
ture of the pate-tendre makes it infinitely
more beautiful than the cold, dead white
surface of the hard oriental porcelain proto-
type.

Before passing on to the next group it
should be noted that the year 1696 isthefirst
official date connected with the manufacture
of porcelain at St. Cloud, when letters patent
were granted to the widow, Barbe Coudray,
of Pierre Chicanneau, and to his children,
who had already ' arrived at the point of
making porcelain perfectly.' Later on, when
a fresh patent was granted in 1 7 1 2, the name
of Henri Trou first appears as officially con-
nected with the factory, although as he had
married the widow Barbe Coudray in 1698
he most probably had taken part in the
management for some time. The manu-
facture of porcelain at St. Cloud appears to
have been carried on by the Chicanneaus
and Trous up to the year 1722, and from
thenceforward by the Trous alone till the
closing of the works, which, according to
M. Auscher, seem to have been destroyed
by fire in 1773 and not rebuilt.

As coming next in historical sequence
we will now consider the specimens figured
at the bottom of Plate III. The examples

1 See the article on Rouen porcelain by Mr. M. L. Solon,
pp. 1 1 6- 1 24 anti.

Early French Pdte-tendre

are representatives of the celebrated factory
at Chantilly, founded probably about the
year 1725 by Ciquaire Cirou, to whom
letters patent were granted in 1735, and
who had the good fortune to attract the
patronage of Louis-Henri Prince de Conde,
to whom he was under considerable obli-
gation for the expenses of the necessary ex-
periments before a satisfactory porcelain
body was successfully produced.

Chantilly porcelain of the early period
has a unique characteristic which dis-
tinguishes it from all other porcelains which
have ever been made in Europe. This pecu-
liarity is the composition of the glaze, which
instead of being transparent is opaque, and
is in fact made in the same way as the stan-
niferous glaze of faience ; that is to say, the
body was covered with a coating composed
mainly of oxide of tin on which the decora-
tion was painted before the vessel was
submitted to the process of firing. The
specimens figured in our illustrations afford
excellent examples of the prevalent types
of decoration used in this factory, more
especially during the early period when the
stanniferous glaze was in use. As will be
noticed, all these pieces are characterized
by a close imitation of Chinese and Japanese
motifs, of which the most frequent is the
style of decoration invented by the cele-
brated Japanese potter, Kakiyemon of
Imari. The style used by this artist had
a remarkable vogue throughout Europe,
for we find his designs copied on porcelain
in almost every factory, not only on the
Continent, but also in England. All the
pieces illustrated, with the exception of
the small figure in front, show more or less
of the Kakiyemon style, the most charac-
teristic, however, being the small custard
cup (fig. 21).

We cannot pass over this group without
drawing attention to the large Chinese
figure mounted in ormolu and holding in
front of him a beautiful little etui with a
revolving lid ; this figure is a strikingly fine
192

specimen of Chantilly porcelain, and would
in itself confer distinction on any collection.
The reader who is interested in the subject
should also not fail to take an early oppor-
tunity of becoming acquainted with the
other fine specimens lent by Mr. Fitzhenry
to the Victoria and Albert Museum, amongst
which two very cleverly-modelled figures of
peasants with market baskets on their backs
are particularly worthy of notice.

A class of Chantilly porcelain not shown
in our illustrations is represented by a series
of plates mostly decorated in blue with small
floral sprays and leaves. These plates have
been in recent years the innocent instru-
ments for the perpetration of frauds on the
too-confiding collector. Owing to their
simplicity of decoration their value in the
market is not very great, but the ingenious
forger has found that by erasing the original
decoration and substituting the elaborate
designs of Sevres or Chelsea a very much
handsomer profit can be realized. This is,
however, a fraud very easily discovered by
a discriminating purchaser, owing to the
fact that the glaze becomes considerably de-
teriorated by the refiring and shows numer-
ous black specks ; the entire general appear-
ance is also quite different from that of a
plate which has only been decorated once.

The Chantilly factory continued opera-
tions up to about the year 1789, when the
great upheaval caused by the Revolution
closed the works.

We will now devote our attention to the
consideration of some of Mr. Fitzhenry's
specimens of Mennecy porcelain. This fac-
tory, which was established by one Barbin
about 1735, under the patronage of Louis
Francois de Neuville, Due de Villeroy, at
Mennecy- Villeroy, became one of the most
noted of the early porcelain factories in
France. Precluded by the protective mea-
sures which safeguarded the interests of the
royal factory from the use of gilding, the
designers nevertheless contrived to pro-
duce some very charming examples of the

EARLY FRENCH PATE TENDRE IN THE COLLECTION
OF MR. J. H. FITZHENRY. PLATE II.

,, , , FRENCH 1-ATE TENDRE IN THE COLLECTION OF
MR. J. H. FITZHENRY, PLATE III.

ceramic art; the chief triumph of the factory,
however, being the beautiful little biscuit
groups and figures, charming specimens of
which are figured in our illustrations on
Plate II. The chief characteristics of
Mennecy porcelain are the ivory colour of
the paste and a purply-rose colour ; also
the practice of using colour to decorate the
rims and edges, which at Vincennes and
Sevres would have been gilded. Amongst
the specimens to which we would draw
particular attention are the dish (Plate III,
fig. 8) and the miniature little pot and cover
exquisitely decorated in gold (fig. 7). For
some unknown reason such pieces as plates
and dishes were only made to a small extent,
and therefore such a dish as that illustrated
on Plate III is extremely important from the
collector's point of view and of great value.
The two little tea-pots painted with flowers
and the custard cups, all on Plate III, are
typical specimens of the Mennecy factory
and betray the strong influence of Vin-
cennes and Sevres, whose models it always
seems to have been the desire of the Men-
necy potters to successfully imitate. Their
labours came to an end about 1 77 3 or 1 774,
when the works were closed.

The last group in our list, and certainly
the most important as regards the history
of European porcelain, is that illustrated
on Plate I, representing the factories of
Vincennes and Sevres, the homes of the
aristocracy par excellence of European
porcelain.

It is, indeed, hardly probable that the
world will ever again witness the produc-
tion of such perfect gems of the potter's
art as were brought forth so abundantly at
Sevres during the eighteenth century. In-
deed the whole system of modern life pre-
cludes the probability of the combination
of such circumstances as are necessary to
realize such a result. When we remember
that at that time the manufacture of por-
celain in France was not regarded as a
commercial enterprise carried on solely

Early French Pate-tendre

for profit, but, on the contrary, was looked
upon as a luxury and as a field of more or
less amicable rivalry between the king and
the wealthy nobles of his court, it is not
surprising that under such auspices, at a
period when art was cultivated for its own
sake regardless of cost, an artistic people
were able to produce such gems of beauty
in porcelain as have never been equalled in
the world's history before or since.

In view of the immense amount of litera-
ture on the subject of the history of Sevres
as a porcelain factory, it is not necessary
within the limits of a magazine article
to dwell on facts which are probably
familiar to most of our readers and easily
ascertained in any text-book. It is pro-
posed, therefore, only to draw attention to
a few specimens which have been con-
sidered as sufficiently important to justify a
few words.

We will only note that the factory at
Vincennes was started about 1740 by two
brothers Dubois, former workers in the
Chantilly fabrique, that it became a royal
manufactory about 1753, and in 1756 it
was removed to Sevres.

As an example of a very rare type the
beautifully-painted picture, which is one
of a pair (Plate I, fig. 2), is worthy of
attention. The cup and saucer on the same
plate (fig. 1), decorated with white panels
reserved on a dark blue ground, are parti-
cularly interesting, as the original paper
label of the ' Sevres Magasin de Vente ' still
remains pasted on the back of the saucer,
proving that these pieces have never even
been washed. It will interest the reader
to know that one of these labels was pre-
sented by Mr. Fitzhenry to the late Director
of the Sevres Museum, as up to that time
they actually did not possess a specimen
for the museum library. The cup (fig. 4)
is a very early specimen of Rose-Pompa-
dour, bearing the date-letter for 1757, the
year when this colour was first invented
by Xrowet.

197

THE ROTHSCHILD MS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM OF ' LES
CAS DES MALHEUREUX NOBLES HOMMES ET FEMMES'
J5T* BY SIR EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON, K.C.B.

T is, perhaps, not unfair to
assume that Boccaccio's

E\^t Latin work, ' De casibus vir-
.^xvorum et feminarum illus-
M trium,' which was written
^-— T^ prohahly a few years earlier

than 1364, but was not published till ten
years later, not long before the poet's
death, would have dropped into the limbo
of oblivion had it not been for its transla-
tions. In an English dress it lives in Lyd-
gate's ' Fall of Princes,' written between
the years 1430 and 1438 for Humphrey,
duke of Gloucester. But the English poet
did not go back to the original source ; he
made use of a translation in French prose
written at the beginning of the fifteenth
century by Laurent de Premierfait. It is
this French work with which we have to
deal in the present article.

Laurent de Premierfait, a simple clerk,
taking his name from his native village of
Premierfait, in the diocese of Troyes in the
ancient county of Champagne, was one of
the best known of the series of translators
who found their occupation under the pro-
tection of Charles the Fifth of France and
his immediate successors, and of princes of
the royal house who loved to be distin-
guished as patrons of learning. Among
other works,he translated the 'De Amicitia'
and the ' De Senectute' of Cicero for Louis,
due de Bourbon. But it is more particu-
larly with the renderings of the works of
Boccaccio that his name is connected. And
yet Laurent de Premierfait was not an
Italian scholar. In his own words, ' pource-
que je suis Francois par naissance et con-
versation, je ne scay pleinement langage
Florentin.' But his want of knowledge of
the Italian poet's native tongue was no ob-
stacle to his undertaking the translation of
even the ' Decameron.' This he accom-
plished by the simple expedient of em-

19S

ploying a collaborator, one Antonio of
Arezzo, a cordelier, who made a Latin
version of the original, from which Pre-
mierfait made his translation into French.
The circumstances under which the
work was done and which he himself de-
scribes are not without interest. He had
found a patron in the wealthy goldsmith
and banker Bureau de Dampmartin ; and it
was in Bureau's house in the Rue de la Cour-
roierie in Paris that the two collaborators
were maintained during the years 141 1 to
1414. We will quote Laurent de Premier-
fait's own words : —

'Je qui depuis longtems suis demourant avec
noble homme Bureau de Dampmartin, escuier,
conseiller du Roy, et citoien de Paris, requis et
demanday audit Bureau secours et provision pour
ceste chose faire. Et il, de joieux visage ad-
ministra audit frere [Antonio of Arezzo] et a moy
toutes necessites, tant en vivres que en quelconques
autres choses convenables pour despence et salaire
de nous deux qui, comme dit est, translatasmes
ledict livre de Florentin en Latin et de Latin en
Francois en lostel dudict Bureau de Dampmartin.'

The work was finished in 141 3, and was
dedicated to Jean, due de Berry, son of
Charles the Fifth.

With the ' De casibus ' our translator had
not had the same difficulty as with the
' Decameron.' There was no need for colla-
boration. The original was in Latin, and
of that language Laurent de Premierfait
was a competent master. In his preface
to the 'Decameron' addressed to the due de
Berry he refers to his previous translation
and to

'Jehan Boccace, acteur aussi du livre des mal-
heureux cas de nobles hommes et femmes, con-
tenant seulement histoires approuvees et choses
serieuses ; lequel livre de vostre commandement
nagueres fut translate par moy, et lequel livre,
comme je croy, avez benignement receu et colloque
entre vos autres nobles et precieux volumes.'

Thus, then, as well for the ' De casibus *
as for the 'Decameron,' the due de Berry

k_ c p:«tiiic<*rf>iux eflFciflieii'br pzc *»«#'" CaCeiiiKUHcfcuCaw.tit poiiv omfv

THE CAREEK OF •

THE CONTEST BETWEEN POVERTY AND FORTUNE

PLATE I.

zA Rothschild MS. in the British Museum

was Laurent de Premierfait's patron. For

him our translator undertook

' le dangereux et long travail de la translacion de
ung tresexquiz et singulier volume des cas des
nobles hommes et femmes escript et compille par
Jehan Boccace de Certald, jadiz homme moult
excellent et expert en anciennes histoires et toutes
autres sciences humaines et divines.'

It is to be noted that Premierfait's work
is not a bare rendering of Boccaccio's text.
The translators of his time and school did
not consider that they were bound to be
literal ; and our translator fails not to
amplify his own text somewhat gene-
rously. His work soon became popular ;
and it seems that he issued a second edition
or retranslation in 1409. As the fifteenth
century advanced, and particularly in the
second half of it, the ' Cas des nobles
hommes et femmes ' was a not unusual
subject for the large folios which were pro-
duced in considerable numbers, in common
with other works of similar character, both
in France and the Low Countries, and
were adorned with numerous miniatures of
greater or less excellence.

The form in which the illustrations of
these illuminated manuscripts are usually
presented is as follows : A large miniature
stands at the head of each of the nine books
into which the work is divided, generally
filling half the page, and a series of small
miniatures are introduced into the body of
the text in illustration of particular stories.
The misfortunes and violent ends of the
unhappy princes and other illustrious per-
sons who form the subjects of the narrative
afforded ample scope for the imagination of
the artist ; and, particularly in the smaller
miniatures, the very direct interpretations
of the cruel acts depicted would be very
appalling if in most instances they were not
so very ludicrous. Indeed, as we turn over
the leaves of one of these illustrated volumes
we may sup of horrors to the full, but as
we close the book we are not very sensible
of having had our feelings severely har-
rowed. There is, in fact, little art, as a rule,

in the general run of the smaller miniatures;
they are simply illustrations. With the
larger miniatures the case is usually different.
On these the better artists were employed;
and in the better class of manuscripts we
not infrequently light on an example of
real merit.

The manuscript from which a series of
such larger miniatures is here reproduced
is the Additional MS. 35,321 in the British
Museum. It forms part of the munificent
bequest of the late Baron Ferdinand Roth-
schild, which came to the trustees in 1 899.
It is a very large folio volume of 32 1 leaves,
measuring 16J inches by 1 il inches, and it
contains the text of Premierfait's second
translation of the ' De casibus,' which he
finished in 1409.

' Cy fine,' runs the colophon, ' le livre de Jehan
Boccace des cas des maleureux nobles hommes
et femmes, translate de Latin en Francois par
moy Laurens de Premierfait, clerc du diocese de
Troies. Et fut compile ceste translacion le xv.
jour davril, mil cccc. et neuf ; cest assavoir le Lundi
apres Pasques.'

The period of the manuscript is the latter
part of the fifteenth century, perhaps from
1470 to 1480. It formerly belonged to the
' cabinet de livres de Pontchartrain,' owned
by Louis Phelypeaux, comte de Pontchar-
train and chancellor of France, who died in
1727. Of the earlier history of the volume
nothing is known.

In accordance with the usual setting,
each of the nine books of the work is
headed with a half-page miniature, and
seventy-five smaller miniatures are scat-
tered through the text. For our series the
six best of the larger miniatures have been
selected. They are the work of French
artists, and are executed in the style that
was developed in the school of the
celebrated painter and miniaturist Jean
Foucquet, of Tours, and his sons. The
particular character of the series bears
resemblance to that of the work which
has been attributed to the hand of Fran-
cois Foucquet the son, and which is to be

201

*A Rothschild MS. in the British Museum

seen, for example, in the tine manuscript
of St. Augustine's 'Cite de Dieu ' in the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (MS. Franc,
i S). This volume was executed for Charles
de Gaucourt, in 1473, by a certain ' egre-
gius pictor Franciscus,' who has been iden-
tified by Monsieur L.Thuasne ('Revue des
Bibliotheques,' 1898) as the painter Fran-
cois Foucquet. This attribution has not
been universally accepted as correct, but it
is not necessary in this place to pause for a
discussion of its merits. It is enough to
cite the manuscript of the ' Cite de Dieu '
as representing the style of the school of
art with which we group our volume. Of
the same style, but, on the whole, superior to
the miniatures before us, are those in the
Valerius Maximus of the Harleian collec-
tion in the British Museum (Nos. 4374-5) , a
manuscript which belonged to the historian
Philippe de Comines {see G. F. Warner,
' Illuminated Manuscripts in the British
Museum ').

The realism which developed in the
miniature painting of the fifteenth cen-
turv had by this time fairly cast off the
old traditions of earlier periods. In parti-
cular, the landscape, which at the begin-
ning of the century was usually represented
by rocks and hills and trees of the most
conventional type, had now become a real
copy of nature, not always exact, it is true,
but at least with a sense of perspective and
atmospheric effect, and with a recognition
of the horizon, which, strangely, it took so
long to discover. But while the landscape
was thus largely improved, yet, as though
the ordinary artist was incapable of taking
in more than one idea at a time, architec-
tural perspective remains at fault ; and,
again, in the endeavour to be fully realistic,
the grace of the figure-drawing of the four-
teenth century is altogether lost, and we are
presented with clumsy rendering of the
limbs, stiff draperies, and features, particu-
larly in the case of men's faces, so laboured,
with the view of giving expression, that the

refinement, be it of youth or of age, is lost.
The relative proportions of human figures
to the surrounding objects is still not fully
appreciated, and animal drawing is in its
infancy. With regard to the last point, if
style of drawing may be taken as an indi-
cation of the kind of life to which the artist
was accustomed, one would be tempted to
think that the ordinary draughtsman of the
fifteenth century was a stay-at-home who
had never seen an animal in his life, but
was in the habit of evolving his specimens
from his inner consciousness. Nothing is
more striking in the miniature painting of
this period than the inability of the draughts-
man to depict a horse. What a contrast are
his clumsy creations to the freely-drawn
figures of animal life scratched by primitive
man on the rude surfaces of stone or horn
or bone !

French miniature painting of this period
of the fifteenth century is distinguished by
a certain hardness of surface, which con-
trasts disadvantageously with the depth of
colour of the Flemish school ; and it is on
account of this hard quality that, in order
to get the high lights, the French artist has
recourse to the meretricious practice of
shading with gold, which, while at the
period of our miniatures it is not too pro-
minent, afterwards is applied to such a de-
gree as to become an offence. The colours
employed in the landscape and in the middle
distance are generally subdued and har-
monious, and the artist is often very suc-
cessful in his treatment of atmosphere. But
in the case of objects in the foreground and
in the prominent figures there is a tendency
to too great brilliancy and even crudeness
in some of the colours. For example, in
the miniatures before us, the artists have
introduced in these details, among other
colours, vivid blue and a particularly harsh
green which overpower the rest.

Of the six miniatures which have been
selected for reproduction, 1 the first three may

1 The reproductions are about half the size of the original
miniatures.

202

■- ■ . -.

«*:

J y,J^ >■

BOi i VCCIO LEI TU1 [NG

I i EO'S INTERVIEW WITH KORTUNE.

PLATE II.

zA Rothschild MS. in the British Museum

be attributed to one and the same artist, at
least in the principal, if not in all, the details.
In some he may have been assisted by other
painters. The fourth and sixth miniatures
are the work of another and less skilful hand ;
and a third artist seems tohave been employed
on the fifth miniature. The superiority of
the work in the first three is obvious.

The first miniature reproduced 2 stands
at the head of the second book of the
' Cas des malheureux nobles hommes et
femmes,' and represents the career of Saul,
king of Israel. In the foreground, on the
left, within the farm-building, Saul, seated
at table, is being anointed by Samuel, who
is clad in a priest's vestments. We may
quote the text : —

'Cestui Saul par ung jour estoit alequerirlesasnes
de son pere et les asnelles qui sestoient egarees.
Et quant ne les trouva aucune part, il voulant
outre enquerir ou elles estoient alees, Saul, par
lenhortement dun enfant qui estoit avec luy, vint
au prophete Samuel qui parloit par la bouche de
Dieu. Apres ce que Samuel eut fait apprester a
disner pour Saul et eut mis devant luy une espaule
de mouton, Samuel par ladmonestrement de Dieu
respandy sur la teste de Saul une burette de huile
consacree et le oingny et ordonna pour estre roy
des Juifz.'

The asses are stabled under a shed, and
sheep are folded within the wattled fence.
The rent in the wall of the building may
be noticed : a very common defect, it seems
in cottages and mean buildings of the time,
if we are to trust the accuracy of minia-
tures. The battle scene on the right may
be taken as representing the wars of Saul
generally ; and the city in the background,
introduced for artistic effect, must be re-
garded as undergoing siege, as indicated by
the two mortars in position. The battle
of Mount Gilboa is in the background on
the left ; and in the middle distance we
witness the death of the defeated king.

' Et arm que Saul ne venist vif es mains de ses
ennemis, et que il ne fust moque par eulx, il se
coucha sur la pointe de son espee et avec son sang
il mist hors son esperit ; et combien que la mort
de Saul fust mort de maleureux roy, toutesvoies
fut elle dung fort et couraigeux homme ; car plus
* Plate I, page 199.;

laide ne plus deshonneste chose ne peut advenir
a ung roy que destre loye de chaines et estre
prisonnier de ses ennemis.'

It is to be observed that the different
scenes are marked off from each other by
conventional rocks.

The miniature is, on the whole, not an
unpleasing example of its kind ; the group-
ing is skilful, and the landscape is artistically
handled. But the picture is marred by
the disproportionate size of the combatants
in the background — a fault in drawing
which is so obvious to modern eyes, that
one would wonder how it could have
escaped those of the artist, did we not
know how slow was the growth of per-
spective in mediaeval art.

In our second miniature, 3 which intro-
duces the third book of Boccaccio's work,
is represented the contest between Poverty
and Fortune. The story Boccaccio tells us
he heard in his youth, when attending the
lectures of Andalone di Negro, the astro-
nomer, at Naples.

'Jay esprouve que vraye est la sentence dune fable
que jadis je oy compter en jeunesse et dont il me
souvient. Et pour ce quil me samble que cette
fable fait assez proprement a mon presente enten-
cion je la compteray de bon couraige tandis que
nous reposons la fin de nostre second livre. Pour
lors que je estoie jeune escolier estudiant a Naples
soubz ung maistre en astronomie nomme maistre
Andalus du Noir, qui lors estoit homme noble
en science et honnourable en meurz et nez de la cite
de Jennes, et qui en publicques escoles enseignoit
les mouvemens du ciel et les cours et influences
des estoilles et planectes, etc'

The lecturer undertakes to prove, ' par
une fable courtoise et ancienne,' that heaven
and the stars are not to blame for a man's
misfortune, but the man himself.

It chanced that Poverty was sitting by
the roadside when Fortune passed by and
laughed. Whereupon Poverty ' se leva
contre Fortune et luy monstra moult rude
et aspre chere,' asking the reason for her
merriment. Fortune replied that she
laughed to see the other's wretched state,
' qui ne es couverte que a moitie dune

» Plate I, page 199.

205

zA Rothschild MS. in the British {Museum

flossoye faicte de tenues palestriaux ' — a
rough garment of worn-out tatters.

On this naturally follows a long alterca-
tion, ending in a personal struggle, in which
Poverty is victorious.

' Povrete doncques, qui eut le genoul agu, foula
la poitruie de Fortune, et luy mist lun des pies
sur la gorge et luy serra forment.'

But the conqueror is not ungenerous.
Fortune is allowed to rise, and an agree-
ment is come to that Misfortune is no
longer to be at the disposal of Fortune, but
is to be chained up.

' Si te commande, Fortune, que en aucun lieu et
tel que chascun puisse veoir tu loyes et attaches
Malheur a une coulompne, afin que doresenavant
Malheur ne puisse entrer en lostel de quelconcque
personne, et que Malheur aussi ne se puisse partir
de la coulompne ou du pel si non avec celui qui le
destachera ; mais je vueil que tu puisses envoier
le Boneur en lostel de quiconcques tu vouldras.'

The scene of the lecture in the miniature
is brought before us by the simple device
of taking out the side of the room in which
it is in progress ; the students, it will be
observed, being by no means of youthful
appearance. Fortune lies complacently
flat on the ground, without sign of any
derangement of her dress to show that she
has just passed through a severe struggle
with her opponent ; even her veil falls ex-
tended in neat folds from her high-crowned
hat. The city is, of course, a French city,
built in the style of architecture familiar
to the artist, although it professes to be the
city of Naples. In the far distance a gallows,
with a body hanging on it, no doubt repre-
sents a very familiar object of the time.

The fourth book is prefaced by the best
executed miniature in the volume, the
third of our series. 4 Here Boccaccio
appears in his doctor's robes, and with his
books about him, addressing a company of
persons clad in different styles of costume,
who fill the half of the room in which the
scene is laid. The prologue of the fourth
book first refers to the ill-fortune of Croesus,
Tarquin, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes ; and the

4 Plate II, page 203.
206

three Asiatic monarchs are probably repre-
sented in the miniature by the three figures
wearing turbans. The rest of the company
may be taken to stand generally for those
who are included in the author's descrip-
tion :

' Jay devant moy ung monceau dystoires con-
tenans les cas dune grant et desvoiee compaignie de
maleureux gentilz hommes, mesement Ytaliens,
lamour desquelz me rappellent et tant a fait que
de la grant compaignie deux jay pris a racompter
lystoire de celui de qui jaymoie mieulx racompter
et escrire le cas, sans faire mencion des autres
maleureux nobles.'

The general effect of the grouping of
this scene is aided by the pleasing architec-
tural setting in which the miniature is
framed.

The remaining three miniatures now
claim attention. They appear to be by
two hands, the fourth and sixth by the one
and the fifth by the other ; at the same
time they are all three so near in style that
it is not impossible that all may be the
work of one and the same artist, and the
differences mere accidents of execution. It
will be observed that they contrast with the
former three chiefly in regard to the prin-
cipal figures, which are here less skilfully
treated and are more common-place ; while
in the landscape and architectural details
there is less to distinguish them.

The subject of the fourth miniature is

Boccaccio's interview with Fortune, 5 which

introduces the sixth book. Fortune, ' qui

est ung hydeux monstre,' suddenly appears

before the author :

' Elle avoit les yeux ardans, et sambloit quilz
menachassent ceulx que elle regardoit. Fortune
avoit la face cruelle et horrible. Elle avoit ses
cheveulx espes, longs, et pendant sur sa bouche.
Certes, je croy que Fortune en son corps avoit
cent mains et autretant de bras pour donner et
pour tollir aux hommes les biens mondains, et
pour abatre en bas et pour lever en hault les
hommes de ce monde. Fortune avoit robe de
maintes et diverses couleurs; car nul homme ne
la conquoist. Fortune avoit la voix aspre et si
dure quil sembloit que elle eust bouche de fer,
pour ce que elle menasse tous les plus grans du
monde et si meet les menaces a effect.'
5 Plate II, page 203.

BOO A< vim \\li PETRARCH,

ISipl

~.n^~ c. ---•>

Till PREACHING OF MAHOMET AM) THE DEATH OF QUEEN BRUNHILD.

• cr tJwtu'itHtirjmT »;ion cfo«

PLATE 111.

*A Rothschild MS. in the British Museum

The artist has not followed the text in
his delineation of the goddess ; he dis-
regards her hundred arms and provides her
only with the ordinary number, and he
follows another tradition in bestowing on
her a Janus-like head, darkly veiled in her
angry mood. She opens with a long tirade :
Boccaccio is labouring in vain if he thinks
that he can find a remedy against her laws
and can thus instruct his readers ; other and
greater writers have tried and have failed.
But a discreet and lengthy reply turns away
her wrath, a reply of which we need only
quote the flattering words which close it :

' Je te prie et supplie, dame Fortune, que mon
livre des cas des hommes soit par ta grace
bienheureux et aggreable, et que mon nom, qui
est obscur et descongneu aux hommes presens,
soit esclarcy et congneu aux hommes avenir par
le moien de ta resplendisseur.'

The fickle dame of course is mollified and
grants the petition, and then proceeds, with
a glance at the unkind things that have been
said about her in the course of the work, to
discourse on the miseries wrought by the
civil wars of Rome. Those are represented
by the scene of street fighting within the
walls of the city, which fills the larger part
of the miniature.

The next scene 6 stands at the head of
the prologue to the eighth book. Wearied
with his labours, the author falls asleep,
then, rousing himself, he soliloquizes on
the vanity and unprofitableness of human
renown, and arrives at the comfortable con-
clusion that the game is scarcely worth the
candle, and that it is folly to wear himself
out with literary toil.

' Et de rechief je abaissay ma teste sur le coissin ;
et lavoie ja dressee sur mon coubte pour moy
lever du lit, et tantost il me sambla que devant
moy estoit ung homme que Dieu me avoit envoie
de je ne say quel pays. Cestui homme estoit moult
attrempe en visaige et en maniere. II avoit gente
face assez pale et joieuse. II portoit sur son chief
unecouronne de laurier vert, et si estoit vestu dun
noble et riche mantel. II estoit digne de tres grant
reverence. Je ouvry et aguisay mes yeulx plus
que autrefoys pour regarder cest homme. Si tost
6 Plate III, page 207.

que je fuz bien esveille je congneu que celui
homme estoit norame Francois Petrac, mon tres
bon maistre. Les admonnestemens de mon
maistre Francois Petrac me ont tous dis aguil-
lonne a cuvre de vertu. Je honnouray Fran-
cois Petrac des le commencement de ma jeunesse.'

A long homily follows from Petrarch on
the wickedness of sloth, which of course has
the desired effect in stimulating Boccaccio
to new endeavours, who accordingly re-
sumes his pen to continue the ' cas des
nobles malheureux.'

The artist has made up for the simplicity
of the scene by the introduction of architec-
tural detail and ornament, which effectively
set off the scantily furnished chamber, in
which, indeed, there is little room for any-
thing but the bedstead of large dimensions.
The execution is rather better than that of
the other two miniatures, and affords some
reason for attributing the painting to
another hand.

The last miniature of our series 7 intro-
duces the ninth and concluding book of
Boccaccio's work. It contains two scenes :
the preaching of Mahomet and the death
of Queen Brunehild. The subject in the
foreground is explained in the following
extracts :

'Cestui Machomet engendre de innobles parens
fut nez en une cite de Arabie nommee Mecca.
Apres la mort de ses parens, il demoura en la
garde et tutelle de Abdamanef son oncle. Sitost
que Machomet fut parcreux, il commenca a adourer
faulses ydoles et suivre vaines supersticions, ainsi

come faisoient tous ceulx de sa lignie

Machomet doncques nourry ung jeune coulon qui
toute sa viande prenoit par accoustumance dedens
les oreilles de Mahomet, ainsi comme il luy adminis-
troit. Et, pour ce que le coulon constraint de fam
voloit sur les epaules de Machomet et mectoit son
bee dedens ses orailles, il donna entendre aux gens
simples et rudes que le Saint Esperit parloit a luy
en samblance dune coulombe, a la maniere ainsi
comme il disoit de Jesu Crist le saint prophete,
sur qui la coulombe descendy quant Saint Jehan
le baptisoit. Et oultre Machomet affermoit que les
paroles et les loix que il preschoit aux peuples il
les recevoit de la bouche de Saint Esperit, qui en
figure de coulombe parloit a luy. Et aussi il
deceut les hommes champestres et ignorans qui a

luy venoient en grans tourbes Mahomet

1 Plate III, page 207.

20g

trf Rothschild MS. in the British Museum

aussi eut ung toreau, qui par longue accoustumance
fut par luy enseigniez en tant que il prenoit la
viande de sa main et venoit a son appel. Ma-
chomet doncques eut fait dieter et escrire la
loy par ungclerc nomme Sergius, homme herite et
qui ensuivoit les erreurs de lerite Nestoire. Et
celle loy ainsi escripte en ung livre, que len dit
Alcoran, le traitre Mahomet loya et attacha ce livre
entre les cornes du thoreau dont jay parle, puis
appella celui thoreau, qui tantost vint a luy et
apporta le livre attachie entre les cornes. Parquoy
le peuple creut et pensa que celle chose feust par-
faicte par la vertu divine.'

After continuing his discourseabout Ma-
homet at some length, our author is inter-
rupted by the appearance of queen Brune-
hild, who desires to tell her story. After
some demur this is allowed, and she pro-
ceeds to give her own version of her various
questionable deeds, in which she is amusingly
corrected by Boccaccio, who exhibits an
intimate knowledge of the events and con-
victs the lady of continual departures from
the truth. Finally she gives the details of
her death as depicted in the background of
the miniature.

'Besoing nest que je me arreste a racompter
plus de maulx par moy souffers. Je fuz a moitie
desvestue et fuz hapee pour mectre a treslaide
mort. Car par ung pie, une main, et par les
crins je fuz loie aux queues de trois chevaulx
effraiez et legiers, et fuz abandonnee a despecer
par les detiremens des chevaulx qui tiroient, lun
de ca, lautre de la. Je fuz despecee parmembres,
et par mon sang je ordoiay tous les lieux par ou
je fuz trainnee. Et par ainsi je mis hors mon
ame par toutes les parties de mon corps detranchie,
et ainsi je mouru entre les tourmens.'

The story is followed by an interesting
apology of the author, incidentally referring
to the poverty of the French tongue, which
deserves to be quoted :

'Je Jehan Boccace, qui de Brunchilde ay ainsi
escript le cas, je confesse que je nay pas use de
tesmoingnaigeassez digne de foy. Carleshistoires
franchoises, actendu la povresse du langaige qui
est en vulgar ou confuz sans art et sans auctorite,
ne sont par convenable destre receues entre
histoires dignes de foy. Pour tant se len treuve

en ce chapitre aucune chose qui ne soit pas assez
vraye, je requier que celle soit imputee a limpor-
tunite et constraingnant requeste de Brunchilde
qui me pria que je escrivisse ainsy.'

The miniature affords instances of the
very indifferent animal drawing of the fif-
teenth century, which has been noticed
above. Mahomet's bull is a very sorry beast,
and the horses which are so steadily carrying
out the execution of the unfortunate queen
can scarcely claim a title to the epithets
' effraiez et legiers.' The very decent mode
in which Brunehild is being torn in pieces
is quite in the picture-book style of illus-
trative art of the period. The court of
Clotaire, who has passed judgement on the
queen, disclosed on the right of the paint-
ing, presents us with the stock monarch of
the time clad in the conventional robes of
royalty. We have seen the same kind of
figure in our first miniature, slaying itself,
as king Saul, on Mount Gilboa.

Yet, with all its shortcomings, bad draw-
ing, faulty perspectives, and incongruous
details, we must not lose sight of the re-
deeming points. For example, the land-
scape has its merits, and the figure of the
doctor or professor which does duty for
Mahomet, is not without a certain dignity.
It is no less true of the miniatures of the
fifteenth century than of those of the earlier
centuries, that we must endeavour to look
at them with the eyes of contemporaries, if
we are to appreciate their real value as works
of art, and necessarily it is only by familiarity
with them that we can succeed in this en-
deavour. Each period has its particular
faults, but, at the same time, each period
has its particular merits. It is by study of
our subjects that we acquire the critical
faculty which unconsciously learns to con-
done the faults, while it is quick to recog-
nize the efforts of the artist to attain to a
higher plane.

MINOR ENGLISH FURNITURE MAKERS OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

J9* BY R. S. CLOUSTON J3T*

ARTICLE VII— SHEARER"

E consciousness of time, was the basis of payment. Both books

consciousness
ignorance which comes
from knowledge is pro-
verbial, and a study of
the works of the English
furniture designers to-
wards the close of the
eighteenth century forms no exception to
the rule ; every modicum of added know-
ledge increases the difficulty in assigning
any piece of actual furniture to one or other
of even the best-known names. There are
points of difference certainly, but they are
by no means so marked or so invariable as
would seem to have been generally supposed ;
and, though it is probably easier to date
accurately a piece of furniture made in the
nineties than a similar piece constructed in
the fifties or sixties, it is much more diffi-
cult to feel any certainty in suggesting the
name of its designer. One of the least
understood of the later furniture makers is
Shearer, who, in 1788, published the
' Cabinet Makers' London Book of Prices,'
or rather was chiefly responsible for it, as
the book is printed by W. Brown and A.
O'Neil ' For the London Society of Cabinet
Makers.' His designs not only resemble the
work of his contemporary, Hepplewhite,
but very often have quite as strong an affinity
to Sheraton's of some years later, with the
result that, though he possessed strong origi-
nality, his work is usually ascribed to the
better-known men, just as at one time their
names were lost in that of Chippendale.

The professed intention of Hepplewhite's
' Guide' is to give designs of the furniture
in actual use at the time of its publication;
that of the Society of Cabinet Makers was
to avoid the disputes apt to arise between
master and man when piece-work, and not

1 For Articles I to VI, see Vol. IV, page 227 ; Vol. V, page 173 ;
Vol. VI, pages 47, 210, 402; Vol. VII, page 41 (March, May,
October, December, 1004; February, April, 1905).

therefore dealt with many articles in com-
mon use, and there is often but little attempt
to differentiate them from the designs of
others.

There were several editions of the ' Book
of Prices,' one being published as late as
1825, but Shearer's work appears only in
the first two editions, issued in 1788 and
1793 respectively. After that the succeed-
ing publications were adapted to the furni-
ture of their own time, and resemble the
earlier editions only in name.

The book was largely accepted by the
trade, not only in London but also in the
provinces, where it was known as 'The
London Book,' and many men still alive
can remember the later editions being used
in the workshops. The greater part of it
is taken up by estimates of the working
cost of the pieces described, with carefully
prepared tables for such things as veneer-
ing, moulding, panelling, etc., nearly every-
thing in fact except the higher branches of
decoration. There is no mention of the
price of wood or materials, with which the
workmen had nothing to do, so the lists as
they stand show only the cost of the actual
workmanship required for each article, but
without such items as carving, brass-work,
or decorative painting. Nearly all the
plates in the book are signed, with the ex-
ception of the frontispiece, which is dis-
tinctly the worst and certainly did not
emanate from Shearer. A woman in classic
dress is leaning against a pillar, holding in
one hand what appears to be a fasces, and
in the other an open book showing a design.
A snake is coiled round the pillar, while a
winged cupid with square and compasses
under his arm is presenting her with a scroll
on which is inscribed ' Unanimity with
Justice,' to which she appears to be paying

211

Minor English Furniture Makers — Shearer

as little attention as to the dangerous prox-
imity of the snake. The lady is probably
intended to represent an employer of labour,
and the cupid the authors of the book. It
is a somewhat weird production ; but in one
way it is as true to its time as the rest of
the plates, for the knowledge of classical
lore, or the assumption of it, was then so
common as to be almost a necessity.

On the title page the authors state that,
as their book is intended to be a guide to-
wards the price of executing any piece of
work, ' they have no plates of the more
common work, that being what almost
anyone may settle without the assistance of
a drawing.' It may possibly be for this
reason that no chairs are given, for, if they
had been, the prices would have referred
only to their construction without carving
or decoration. The omission is to be re-
gretted, for if Shearer's chairs were of the
same class of design as the rest of his fur-
niture the loss is very great indeed.

Though the book was intended for the
use of the trade, it is evident that the
authors also catered for the general public.
A few of the designs are not even mentioned
in the letterpress, and, with the exception
of the tables for inlay, none of the decora-
tion. Great care has evidently been bestowed
on the drawings, in most of which there is
a marked retention of power coupled with
a simplicity of line and such well-considered
proportion as can only be matched else-
where in the more restrained work of
Sheraton.

Shearer, however, had his limits, and
they are strongly marked. No contemporary
designer, not even Sheraton at his best, can
be held to have surpassed him in the com-
bination of daintiness and simplicity ; but
he was far behind both Sheraton and Hep-
plewhite in the application of the more
florid form of ornament. What he possibly
may have considered his chef d^ceuvre is a
side-board, 2 the first of its kind (so far as

2 No. i, Plate I, page 213.
212

dated designs go) to be really a side-board
and not a side-board table with drawers
introduced. It may or may not have been
the first attempt to combine a side-board
table and the pedestals and vases which
went with it into one article, but it is cer-
tainly first as regards date of publication.
Its interest, however, is more historical
than artistic. It effectually disposes of the
idea that we owe the side-board proper to
Sheraton ; but it is one of the least convinc-
ing of Shearer's designs, neither the decora-
tion nor the construction being altogether
pleasing. The pedestals, which do not quite
reach the ground, are supported on feet
which are not harmonious with the rest of
the treatment, and neither of the alternative
designs for vases is at all comparable to
Hepplewhite's beautiful renderings of the
same articles.

In book-cases Shearer is very strong.
His eye for proportion is indisputable, and
it is only his occasionally uncertain use of
inlay and ornament which would prevent
us placing him first in this particular depart-
ment. Even as these stand they are better
than Hepplewhite's, and there can be little
doubt of their influence on Sheraton. The
specimen reproduced from the book 3 com-
bines both his best and his worst qualities.
Neither treatment of the circular form or
inlay can be commended, though as regards
the rest there is little to find fault with and
much to be admired. The two designs for
the pediment give the drawing a lop-sided
look, but both are really good ; while the
four variations for the tracery of the door
are all more or less happy. This last was a
department of cabinet making to which
Shearer paid particular attention, and he
would seem to have been responsible for the
style of treatment. There is nothing quite
like them in the ' Guide,' but it is certain
that they more than suggested some of the
designs given by Sheraton four years later.
That marked No. 2 is almost exactly repro-
ve 2, Plate I, page 213,

•'■--/ ,t.-ffi,S/, ,, /, CM .-/ ~ ./■/>*/ r>i. ,

I. SIDEBOARD

■ ■/.,./ /;,.: .

i BOOKCASE AND SECRETAIRE

PLATE I. DESIGNS FOR FURNI-
TURE BY SHEARER

Minor English Furniture Makers — Shearer

duced in No. i, Plate 29, of the ' Drawing
Book,' the only difference of any importance
being that the pointed ornament in the
centre of the top division was changed for
something much heavier. In this instance
there can be no doubt as to priority of
design, but the same cannot be said for
several of these by W. Casement in the
second edition. They bear the same date as
Sheraton's earliest, and the likeness between
them is too marked to be the result of mere
coincidence. Sheraton, with all the fuss
he made about originality, was by no means
above annexing anything which happened
to suit his purpose ; but in this case the
likelihood is all the other way. For one
thing, Sheraton mentions the first edition of
the ' Book of Prices' in his preface, but not
the second (in which Casement's drawings
appear), and for another, his additional eight
designs, dated September of the following
year, have no such definite resemblance ;
though, on the other hand, it must be ad-
mitted that, with one or two exceptions, they
are neither up to his own standard or Case-
ment's. In the account of the furniture at
the Bradford Exhibition inTHE Burlington
Magazine for August last, 4 there is an illus-
tration of a secretaire and bookcase which
may with practical certainty be said to have
been executed either by Shearer himself or
from the design now illustrated. As the
photograph gives a better idea than the
engraving of how such a piece of furniture
actually appears, it is here reproduced
again. 5

Several of the plates by Shearer resemble
similar articles illustrated in the ' Guide,'
and in the second edition of the ' Book of
Prices ' many of the added plates bear the
signature ' Hepplewhite,' from which it
has been argued that Shearer may have had
something to do with the compilation of
the ' Guide.' A careful comparison of the
drawings does not lead to this conclusion,
for even where the likeness is most apparent,

4 Vol. V, pp. 4S2-503. 5 No. 3, Plate II, page 217.

and the articles are precisely similar in
construction (as happens more than once),
Hepplewhite's rendering of such a thing
as a leg of a table is heavy and lacking in
grace when compared to Shearer's. It
is, nevertheless, worthy of remark that
Shearer himself supplied nothing new
for the second edition of the ' Book of
Prices,' and that several of the plates signed
'Hepplewhite' resemble his style much
more closely than anything in the 'Guide,'
being, indeed, indistinguishable from his
work both as regards their excellences and
their faults.

We know, through the research of
Miss Constance Simon, 6 that George
Hepplewhite, who was probably the
founder of the firm of that name, died a
year previous to the publication of the
' Guide,' and the business was thereafter
carried on by his widow Alice under the
style of A. Hepplewhite & Co. It is of
course possible that in 1792, the date on
the earliest of the new plates, Shearer had
become a member of the firm, and had
therefore sunk his personality ; but in the
few added plates in the succeeding editions
of the ' Guide ' there is no resemblance to
his style, and it is just as likely that when
a second edition of the ' Book of Prices '
was contemplated the better-known firm
either took it in hand or allowed their
named to be used.

One piece of furniture which is given
by no one but Shearer is a lady's screen
writing table. 7 It is a relic of the pre-
tennis-and-hockey days, when complexions
were jealously guarded indoors as well as
out. These screens were made very light,
being only six inches deep, to facilitate
their being moved from one part of the
room to another. On the lower half were
two panelled doors with shelves inside, and
the upper part of the front was let down and
supported by ' quadrants ' to torm a writing

6 ' English Furniture Designers of the Eighteenth Centurj' '
(A. H. Bullen). 1 No. 4, Plate II, page 217.

215

Minor English Furniture Makers — Shearer

table, disclosing when in position a nest
of drawers and pigeon-holes. They were
raised from the ground on light standards,
presumably to allow the feet of the lady who
used one to benefit by the fire from which
her face had to be eternally shielded.

The man who wishes to furnish a house
entirely in eighteenth-century furniture
will find some difficulty in fitting the
wash-stands of the period to modern
requirements. There are six of these in
the ' Book of Prices,' all of them more
suggestive of a doll's-house than of a real
bedroom, though apart from their intended
use they are nice enough articles of
furniture. With writing tables, on the
other hand, the choice is almost unlimited,
many of them being not only more decora-
tive than our own, but quite as useful.
Letter-writing was a very different thing
then from what it is now. People did not
dash off elliptical sentences on a post-card
in a hand-writing intended to baffle the
curiosity of the letter carrier ; nor did they,
as everyone knows who has gone through
the contents of an old house, throw a letter
in the fire the moment it was answered.
Letter-writing was one of the polite arts,
and everyone pretending to education or
culture emulated the best models. Even
Horace Walpole wrote careful notes of his
intended replies on the backs of his friends'
letters, and the ordinary correspondent
made as careful a skeleton of the subject-
matter of a proposed letter as if it were a
school essay. Each sheet of paper being
its own envelope, the length of a letter and
the relative importance of each point had
to be as carefully considered as if one were
writing an exact column for a newspaper.
Every man was not a Horace Walpole,
nor every woman a Lady Mary Wortley-
Montagu, but most people with a real
place in society at least pretended to culti-
vate the art, with the result that we have
received an inheritance of an immense
number of beautifully designed and per-

216

fectly fitted writing tables or other articles
adaptable to the purpose. In this book
alone there are no less than sixteen examples,
and in addition four separate drawings
for alternative fittings.

One of these (the first plate signed
' Hepplewhite ') bears less resemblance to
Shearer than most of the others, and
though of little artistic merit is of interest
as being, presumably, the first of the
' Carlton ' shape, afterwards improved by
Sheraton and other makers. In these a
superstructure of drawers ten or twelve
inches wide runs round the back and both
sides, leaving a space in the middle for a
rising writing-desk. The other designs
include most of the forms then in use,
while on one, though it is difficult to
understand why, there is placed a shield-
shaped looking-glass.

Both Shearer and Hepplewhite, though
for different reasons, inserted plates in their
books which had no claim to originality.
The Rudd's dressing table, given by both,
owes its origin to an unknown designer,
having been first constructed, as we are
told in the ' Guide,' for ' a once popular
character ' of that name. It is by no
means a thing of beauty, being more
remarkable for its ingenuity than for its
appearance. The slightly different ren-
derings of this article by Shearer and
Hepplewhite are typical of their methods.
Shearer's is severely plain ; and though
Hepplewhite, as in most of his bedroom
furniture, makes but little attempt at
decoration, the drawing in the 'Guide' is
of a much heavier and clumsier article.

Shearer supports it on ' Marlboro ' legs,
that is legs of a square tapered shape ending
in a ' spade ' foot ; Hepplewhite more than
doubles their thickness, representing legs
strong enough, constructively, for the
heaviest dining-table of that convivial
period, and which seem somewhat out of
place for the weight theys upport.

Hepplewhite furniture taken as a whole

■Ft'o. -i.

7. on

4. SCREEN WRITING

3. BOOKCASE AND SECRETAIRE

S. HORSE-SHOE DINING TABLE

PLATE II. FURNITURE BV

SHEARER

°\

\ I

Minor English Furniture Makers — Shearer

is undoubtedly a revolt against the heavi-
ness of the Chippendale period. Some-
times he even leans to fragility, and it has
been usual to consider him the prime mover
in the evolution to lightness. As regards
some of his furniture, particularly that
which is intended for the drawing-room,
there is a certain amount of justification
for the contention ; at least, with such
facts as are at our disposal, it cannot be
absolutely denied. It is, however, possible,
if indeed it is not likely, that the leader-
ship of this evolution has been assigned to
himsimplyfor lack, of other evidence. The
* Book of Prices ' is the only publication
of the kind contemporary with the first
edition of the ' Guide,' and Shearer's
avoidance of the drawing-room is as remark-
able as his omission of chairs ; but where-
ever it is possible to compare his designs
with those of the ' Guide ' we invariably
find an added lightness and grace. For
purposesof comparison I illustrate two side-
boards on almost identical lines 8 which
explain the difference between the men in
this particular better than can be done in
words. From these it will be seen that it
is Shearer rather than Hepplewhite who
must be considered as the chief apostle of
lightness ; for he took it to the extreme
verge of safety. In the Hepplewhite side-
board an appearance of lightness has evi-
dently been aimed at in the two middle
legs in a manner only found in his designs.
These are not tapering squares as in
Shearer's, but irregular parallelograms.
Viewed from across a room, and not in the
sudden perspective he affected in his draw-
ings, the depth would not be noticeable,
and they would appear to the eye as being
considerably less massive than they really
are, though even then by no means so light
as Shearer's. Whether the extreme of
fragility should be praised or blamed is a
question that is open to argument ; but,
after all, the proof of the pudding is in the

8 Plate III, page 220.

eating, and Shearer's furniture has so far
stood the test of time. His reputation
nevertheless has gained little by the fact.
Actual pieces, either made by him or from
his designs, are almost invariably ascribed
to either Hepplewhite or Sheraton, while
in a recently published book several illus-
trations, taken straight from the ' Book of
Prices,' are attributed to the latter designer.
These side-boards show also another dif-
ference between Hepplewhite and Shearer.
In Shearer's drawing one end is designed
as in the ' Guide,' but the other has an
additional curvature very typical of the man
who, for the most part, attempted to do
by treatment of line what others did by
ornamentation. His library table — a very
different thing from Hepplewhite's ugly
designs for the same purpose — is another
example of this. It is a happy combina-
tion of the curved forms of the Chippen-
dale era, with the added reserve of the
later taste. In his chests of drawers 9 he
also makes use of the same treatment with
good effect.

A curious and somewhat rare form of
dining table is that called by Shearer the
' horse shoe.' 10 This was afterwards
adopted by Sheraton, who designated it
' Grecian,' probably from his treatment of
the legs and also of the seats with which
he surrounded it. It was made to extend
to a half circle as shown on the diagram,
the guests sitting round the outer circum-
ference and being served from the inner.

Whether Shearer influenced Hepplewhite
or Hepplewhite Shearer is a question to
which we are not likely to find a definite-
answer ; yet as a considerable portion ot
Sheraton's style was founded on Shearer's
lines, the presumption is that if a man of
such very decided personality was affected,
Hepplewhite was no less indebted to this
great but practically forgotten designer.
{To be concluded?)

9 No. 7, Plate II, page 217.

10 No. 8, Plate II, page 217.

221

ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO

PART I — HIS EARLY LIFE (Qontinued)

J0» BY HERBERT P. HORNE ^

HERE is nothing, then,
inherently impossible in
Vasari's statement, that
Bernardetto was the early-
patron of Andrea : at the
least, that writer was
strictly correct in saying
that the estates of Bernardetto lay in the
neighbourhood of Scarperia, from which
San Piero a Sieve is distant only some five
kilometres. Now Vasari expressly says that
Andrea was born

at a villetta (one of those little villas, half 'casa da
signore,' and half farm-house, lying in its own
land, which are characteristic of Tuscany), com-
monly called II Castagno, not far distant from
Scarperia ;

whereas Milanesi, following Giuseppe
Maria Brocchi in his 'Descrizione del Mu-
gello,' 14 hastily concludes that the painter
was born at San Martino a Castagno, a
mountain-village lying under the precipi-
tous heights of the Falterona, at the head
of the grand and wild valley, which runs
up from San Godenzo, under the shadow
of" the Alpe di San Benedetto. This village,
however, lies more than fifty kilometres dis-
tant from Scarperia, on the farthest verge
of the Mugello ; and it is extremely impro-
bable that Bernardetto de' Medici would
have heard of the doings of a peasant boy
living in an inaccessible region, thus far
removed from his villa. I have, moreover,
carefully searched all the ' Denunzie al
Castasto,' of the parish of San Martin a
Castagno, for the year 1435, and I have
failed to discover anything relating either
to Andrea, or to his family. On the
other hand, we possess one very signifi-
cant piece of evidence regarding Andrea's
connexion with Scarperia. Both the
extant versions of the lost ' Libro di

14 I.e., Firenze, 1748, p. 48.

Billi,' 15 the ' Anonimo Gaddiano,' 16 and
Vasari, 17 agree in recording that Andrea
painted above the gateway of the Palace
of the Vicars of the Republic, at Scarperia,
' a naked Charity,' doubtless a fresco, which
has long since perished. All such evi-
dence then, as we possess, tends to confirm
Vasari's account of the origins of Andrea.
Certainly, Vasari never made any state-
ment, unless he had it upon what seemed
to him some sufficient authority. In this
instance, his authority was no longer the
lost ' Libro di Billi,' from which he appears
to have derived the legend of the murder
of Domenico Veneziano by Andrea. But
Vasari might well have received such an
account from Bernardetto's grandson, the
Magnificent Ottaviano de' Medici, a great
patron of the arts, with whom he was well
acquainted, and who is frequently men-
tioned in the pages of the ' Lives.'

If then, as I think, we are to credit
Vasari's story, it follows that Andrea must
have been Bernardetto's junior by some
years : so that if the latter was born, as he
himself states, in 1395, the date of An-
drea's birth cannot be placed earlier than
the first decade of the fifteenth century.
Indeed, if we suppose him to have been
born c. 1 410, we are no longer met by the
difficulty, which was the chief stumbling-
block to our acceptance of Milanesi's
legend, that for the first forty-four years
of the life, not only have we no notice of
him, but we have not even a single work
by his hand which could be referred to
this period of his career ; a thing incredible
of a master, who was held in the highest
esteem by his contemporaries. The earliest
paintings by Andrea to which a date can be
assigned, were the destroyed frescoes of the

15 C. Frey : ' II Libro di Antonio Billi,' Berlin, 1892, pp. 22-3.

16 C. Frey: '11 Codice Magliabechiano, cl. XVII. 17,' Berlin,
1892, p. 99. 17 Ed. 1550, Vol. I, p. 416.

222

Albizzi conspirators, executed apparently
in 1434 : otherwise, all the extant works
by his hand of which the date is known,
or may be conjectured, are to be referred
to a period subsequent to that year. From
that time till the date of his death, we
possess a whole series of notices and dated,
or undated, works.

Again, the supposition that the painter
was born c. 1410, removes yet another
difficulty which we had in accepting Mi-
lanesi's legend. In the earliest of Andrea's
extant works the influence of Donatello,
and of Donatello in his maturity, is so pre-
dominant and remarkable, that we cannot

Andrea dal Castagno

but conclude that Andrea tell under this
influence at an early and impressionable
period of his career. Had Donatello, as
Milanesi would have us believe, been but
two years older than Andrea, it is difficult
to understand how so forcible and original
a personality as the latter, could have re-
mained so completely under that influence,
at the age of fifty, as in that case he must
have done. Whereas, if we suppose Andrea
to have been, not the contemporary of
Donatello, but his junior by upwards of
twenty years, the influence which the latter
exercised over him, becomes not only in-
telligible, but illuminating.

PART II— THE EARLY WORKS OF ANDREA

Having discussed the origins of Andrea's
life, let us now turn to inquire into the
origins of his art. The earliest date at
which we hear of his activity as an artist
is that of the year 1434, when he appears
to have executed the effigies of the Albizzi
conspirators, on the front of the Palazzo
del Podesta, a building which afterwards
served as the Palazzo del Bargello, by
which name it is still known. Notices of
these frescoes occur in both the extant
versions of the ' Libro di Billi,' and among
the collections of the ' Anonimo Gaddiano.'
In the Codice Petrei, the notice runs thus:

He painted on the face of the Palace of the
Podesta of Florence, out of derision, in the like-
ness of men hanged, divers citizens who had been
banished by the State ; and from that time forth
he was called Maestro Andreino degli Impiccati.

In the Codice Strozziano, and in that of the
Anonimo, the same notice occurs with some
slight verbal changes. 1 Vasari in copying
and expanding this notice, confuses these
frescoes by Andrea, with those which Botti-
celli painted in 1479, upon the face of the
old Bargello, destroyed by II Cronaca in
1495, to make room for Savonarola's great
council chamber in the Palazzo Vecchio,

1 C. Frey : ' II Libro di Antonio Billi,' Berlin, 1892, pp. 24-25.
C. Frey : ' II Codice Msgliabechiano, cl. XVII, 17,' Berlin, 1892,
p. 99.

now known as the Sala dei Cinquecento.
In the second edition of the ' Lives,'
Vasari's notice runs thus :

In the year 1478, when Giuliano de' Medici
was killed, and Lorenzo, his brother, wounded,
in Santa Maria del Fiore, by divers members of
the Pazzi family and others, their adherents and
fellow-conspirators, it was agreed by the Signory
that all those who had taken part in that plot,
should be painted in the likeness of traitors on
the face of the Palace of the Podesta. Whence
it was, that that work having been offered to
Andrea, as the servant and as one under obli-
gation to the Medici, he right willingly accepted
it ; and having set himself to the work, executed
it in so admirable a manner that it was a marvel.
It would be impossible to describe how much art
and judgement he showed in the persons por-
trayed there, for the most part of the size of life,
and hanging by the feet in strange attitudes, all
various and most beautiful. This work, since it
pleased the whole city, and particularly those
who understood the matters of painting, was the
reason that he was from henceforth no longer
called Andrea dal Castagno, but Andrea degli
Impiccati. 2

Now Vasari, although he is in error in
stating that the effigies painted upon the
face of the Palazzo del Podesta were those
of the Pazzi conspirators, has apparently
preserved in this passage, an authentic de-
scription of Andrea's frescoes : for the Pazzi
conspirators, having been taken and killed,

' Vasari, ed. 1568, vol. I, p. 399.

223

Andrea dal Castagno

were, as the ' Anonimo Gaddiano ' relates,
painted by Botticelli hanging by the neck,
with the one exception of Napoleone Fran-
cesi, who alone escaped with his life, and
who was represented hanging by one foot ; 3
whereas the Albizzi conspirators, who had
been banished the State, were, in accord-
ance with a custom which had long pre-
vailed at Florence, painted ' out of derision,'
hanging by the feet. The last recorded
instance of persons banished the State
having been held up to infamy in this
manner is that of the captains and rebels
whose effigies were given to Andrea del
Sarto to paint after the siege of Florence
in 1 529.-* Several studies for these figures,
hanging by one foot, are still preserved
among the drawings in the Uffizi. Vasari,
however, must have derived his account of
these frescoes from others, for the effigies
painted both bv Andrea dal Castagno and
Sandro Botticelli, had been destroyed after
the flight of Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici
from Florence, in 1494, many years before
Vasari's birth. But the notices which occur
in two of the early chroniclers of the de-
struction of these effigies, obviate any pos-
sible confusion as to their place or subject.
Giovanni Cambi, in his 'Istorie Floren-
tine,' records that on November 14, 1494
(three days before the entry of Charles VIII
into Florence) , the effigies of the outlaws of
the year 1434, painted on the Palazzo del
Podesta, and those of the year 1478, painted
on the Palazzo del Capitano [or del Bar-
gello], were effaced, 5 and Jacopo Nardi
records the same event almost in the same
words. 6

The decree of the Signoria recalling Co-
simo de' Medici from exile was passed on
October 2, 1434; and on the next day,
Rinaldo degli Albizzi was banished, with
his son Ormannozzo. On October 6,

8 C Frey: 'II Codice Magliabechiano, cl. XVII, 17,' Berlin,
1892, p. 105.

* Vasari, ed. Sansoni, Vol. V, p. 53.

4 I.e., printed in ' Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani,' Vol. XXI,
p. 80.

6 ' Historie di Fiorenza,' ed. 1582, p. 14, recto.

224

Cosimo returned in triumph to Florence ;
and as the chief object in holding the Albizzi
and their followers up to infamy in these
frescoes, was entirely of a political and par-
tisan nature, there can be little doubt that
they were executed with the same rapidity
with which, as we know, Botticelli painted
those of the Pazzi conspirators in 1478.
We may, therefore, conclude with tolerable
certainty, that they were painted during the
latter part of the year 1434. Thus the first
public work executed by Andrea of which
any notice has come down to us, must virtu-
ally, if not nominally, have been given to
him by Cosimo himself, whose interest in
the painter probably went back to the time
when he was a boy, since Cosimo's ancestral
possessions of Cafaggiolo and Trebbio, in
the Mugello, adjoined the estates of Bernar-
detto de' Medici.

The earliest extant paintings by Andrea
of which the date may be approximately
ascertained, partly from documentary evi-
dence, and partly from the character of the
paintings themselves, are the series of
frescoes in the suppressed convent of Sant'
Appollonia at Florence. We search in
vain for any notice of these paintings in
the pages of Vasari, of the commentators,
or of the older writers of guides and other
topographical works; indeed, it is only
since the building has passed into the
keeping of the Italian Government, that
attention has been drawn to these frescoes,
and their real authorship has been recog-
nized. The monastery of Sant' Appol-
lonia, Virgin and Martyr, an abbey of
Benedictine nuns, in the Via San Gallo, at
Florence, was founded by Piero di Ser
Mino de' Buonaccolti in 1339. In 1375,
Neri Corsini, Bishop of Fiesole, united to
the monastery the house of Santa Maria di
Fonte Domini, in the diocese of Fiesole;
but the nuns of Sant' Appollonia did not
reach the height of their prosperity until
the following century. 7 On October 12,

7 G. Richa: ' Notizie delle Chiese Florentine,' Firenze. 1754,
Vol. VIII, pp. 298-304.

Photographs by Alimri.\

THE LAST SUPPER, CRl/CI FIXIOX, ENTOMBMENT AND
RESURRECTION ; FRESCOE BY ANDREA DAL CASTAGNO,
IN THE CONVENT OF ST. APOLLONIA AT FLORENCE.

Andrea dal Castagno

1429, Pope Martin V, seeing that the
nuns, through the want of an infirmary,
ran the risk of infection in times of the
plague, empowered the archbishop or
Florence, at the instance of the Abbess
Cecilia de' Donati, to grant a faculty for the
purchase of a house adjacent to the monas-
tery, and belonging to the friars of Santa
Maria a San Gallo, in order to erect such
a building on the site. 8 Among the ar-
chives of the monastery, now preserved in
the Archivio di Stato at Florence, I find a
book of accounts in which, as it appears
from an entry on the first page, dated 1429,
it was intended to set down —

all the charges that shall be incurred on the fabric
of that [monastery] , and particularly on an In-
firmary, Refectory or Hall, Entrance, and Stairs
and Dormitory, with their appurtenances thereto,
by the Sister Cecilia di Pazzino di Messer Apardo
Donati, at present Abbess of the aforesaid Monas-
tery of Sant' Appollonia.

From an entry on the next page, it
appears that the nuns of Sant' Appollonia
possessed four houses adjoining their mon-
astery on the side towards the Porta San
Gallo ; and that in the midst of this pro-
perty, was the house and gardens belonging
to the Spedale di San Gallo, for the pur-
chase of which they had procured the
faculty from Pope Martin V, in order to
obtain a sufficient site for their new build-
ings. Next follows a copy of the agree-
ment drawn up on October 29, 1429, be-
tween the Abbess Cecilia and ' Lorenzo
di Giovanni da Ribuoia, maestro di mu-
rare,' for the erection of these buildings :
and further entries show that the demo-
lition of the five houses preparatory to
clearing the site was proceeding during
the months of February and March,
1429-30. After this, these accounts have
been so incompletely kept, that they afford
little or no insight into the progress of the
work. 9 It would appear, however, from
an indulgence of Eugenius IV, dated No-
vember 4, 1434, that the new buildings

» Doc. V, No. 512. » Doc. IV.

had then been brought to completion, for
among the altars cited in it is that of the
' Pieta del Chiostro.' 10 The grant of this
indulgence doubtlessly marks the full re-
sumption of monastic life by the nuns, in
their new house.

The buildings of the Abbess Cecilia still
remain for the most part in their original
state, although, here and there, disfigured
by modern accretions. Her ' refectorio
ouero sala, androne, chiostro e schale,'
those portions precisely of her work which
possess for us an especial interest, are easily
recognizable from the beautiful and early
character of their architecture. They are
designed in that first, pure phase of the
Florentine Renaissance, in which the un-
derlying gothic purpose and mediaeval
sentiment constantly assert themselves be-
neath the antique order and symmetry or
their exterior.

The frescoes by Andrea at Sant' Appol-
lonia consist of a Pieta, in a lunette over
the doorway leading to the little fore-
court of the refectory ; and a Last Supper,
with a Resurrection, Crucifixion, and En-
tombment above, on the end wall of the
refectory. The Pieta, which is difficult
of access, is now in that part of the old
monastery which serves as a military
magazine ; the other frescoes, which are
reproduced in the accompanying plate, are
in the portion of the refectory attached to
the little museo. All these frescoes were
first ascribed to Andrea by Signor Caval-
caselle, in the Italian edition of the 'History
of Painting in Italy,' Vol. V, p. 99, where
they are described at length. At the time
when this volume first appeared, in 1892,
the three upper frescoes had been recently
discovered under the whitewash.

Despite their damaged condition (large
patches of the intonaco having fallen away),
they are in a much more original state than
the Last Supper below them, which bears
the traces of repeated restoration. At first

'• Doc. V, No. 534.

r 227

Andrea dal Castagno

sight, these upper frescoes might appear to
be of a somewhat earlier date than the Last
Supper ; but this apparent difference must
largely be due to the frequent retouches
which the latter has undergone, and the
darkening of its colour in the process of
restoration. Certainly, the three frescoes
of the Resurrection, the Crucifixion, and
the Entombment, are among the very
earliest works by Andrea which have come
down to us. Other works of the same
period are a series of panels, once forming
a ' predella,' one of which, a Crucifixion,
is now in the National Gallery, No. 1 1 38 ;
and the somewhat earlier frescoes which
formed the decoration of a private chapel
near Florence, and which still remain there
in private hands.

The years immediately succeeding the
rebuilding and enlargement of the monastery
formed a period of great prosperity for the
nuns of Sant' Appollonia, as may be seen
fromRicha's account of the convent. 11 This
fact, no less than the internal evidence
of the paintings themselves, goes to prove
that Andrea's frescoes were executed for
the Abbess Cecilia, and that the earliest ot
them were painted, as I think, not long
after the completion of her buildings,
c. 1434. Certainly, all these paintings are
earlier in date than the circular window
of the Deposition in the cathedral at
Florence, for the cartoon of which Andrea
was paid 50 lire piccioli, on February 26,
1443-4. This is the earliest documented
work by the master which has come down
to us.

It needs no very profound acquaintance
with Italian art in the fifteenth century, to
realize that in these frescoes of Andrea's,
we have a phase of Florentine painting
which is the very antithesis of the painting
of Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo ; and that
whereas the art of Fra Angelico and Fra
Filippo is the logical outcome of the art
of such masters as Masolino and Lorenzo

11 I.e., Vol. VIII, p. 300, etc.

Monaco, we must search in vain among
the work of the painters who preceded
Andrea, for that which can adequately
account for the origin and development
of his art. There is a moment in the
career of Masaccio, when his manner
so closely resembles that of his master,
Masolino, that critics are still disputing to
which of the two painters certain frescoes
are to be attributed. But Andrea, in his
very earliest works, appears so original a
figure, that we are forced to look elsewhere
than among the painters of his day, for the
influences which went to form his manner.
The frescoes at Sant' Appollonia are the
work of a master who is entirely preoccu-
pied with the study of naturalistic structure,
form, and relief; but always as a mode of
pictorial expression. The subject of this
expression is invariably some ' passion of
the mind,' forcibly rendered, and often with
so much vehemence that, to our modern
way of thinking, it seems at times to par-
take of some colour of brutality. Again,
in his search after the individual type,
Andrea avoids that generalized breadth and
ideality of conception, which in Giotto and
Masaccio produces a grandeur and beauty of
design, which is at times akin to the antique.
Now, not only in these traits, but in the
actual forms and characters, does the art
of Andrea recall that of Donatello. His
heads and hands, and, still more, the heavy
folds of his draperies, as of a thick woollen
cloth, are obviously founded upon a study
of the works of that sculptor. It is im-
possible to look attentively at the figures
in the frescoes at Sant' Appollonia without
recalling such works of Donatello's as the
St. Mark on the exterior of Or San Michele,
or the later series of prophets on the cam-
panile of the cathedral, which, for the
most part, were executed between 141 5
and 1425. Nor is this resemblance to be
traced only in the heads and draperies : the
figure of Christ upon the Cross at Sant'
Appollonia, is so closely studied from the

228

Crucifix by Donatello in Santa Croce, that
Andrea here appears definitely to attempt
in painting what the older master had
achieved in sculpture.

Again, all the architectural ornaments
of the open chamber in which Christ and
the Apostles are seated, are designed wholly
in that very individual manner which
Donatello founded upon antique Roman
ornament, and of which the marble
tabernacle of Or San Michele, which now
contains Verrocchio's bronze, is the most
remarkable example.

But great as was Donatello's influence
over Andrea, we must look, elsewhere for the
master from whom he directly acquired the
practice and technique of painting. Cer-
tainly, such a master could not have been
Paolo Uccello : for throughout his life,
Andrea remained ignorant of the first
principles of perspective ; and it is incon-
ceivable that so gifted a creature as he
could have worked in Paolo's ' bottega '
without acquiring the elementary prin-
ciple of the vanishing point. In the fresco
of the Last Supper, at Sant' Appollonia,
the lines of the inlaid frieze on the lateral
walls of the open chamber, in which
Christ and the Apostle are seated, instead
of converging to the point of sight, appear
to diverge. Similar errors, showing the same
ignorance of the then newly discovered
science of perspective, occur in the draw-
ing of the architectural forms of the sepul-
chral fresco of Niccolo da Tolentino, in the
cathedral at Florence, a work executed in
1456, the last year but one of Andrea's
life. Uccello, on the other hand, evinces
a profound acquaintance with the science
of perspective in his very earliest works.
The black and white spaces of the parti-
coloured string-course which divides the
fresco of the Creation from that of the
Fall, in the Chiostro Verde, at Santa Maria
Novella, are correctly diminished in accord-
ance with the laws of perspective. Yet
these frescoes must have been executed

Andrea dal Castagno

prior to Uccello's journey to Venice in
1425. In what measure Uccello may have
indirectly influenced Andrea, in the course
of his career, is a wholly different ques-
tion.

I have yet to allude to certain traits
which go to distinguish these earlier paint-
ings, as I take them, from Andrea's later
works. These are principally traits of
motive and sentiment : of motive such as
the dishevelled figure of the Magdalene at
the foot of the Cross, or of the violent
gestures andmovementsof the flying angels,
in the frescoes of the refectory at Sant'
Appollonia, traits which carry us back to
certain Giottesque painters, as Bernardo
Daddi and others ; and of sentiment such
as the extreme ruggedness of conception
which marks the figures of the Apostles in
the Last Supper, a trait equally Giottesque
in its origin, which is largely modified in
Andrea's later works, such as the figures ot
the Sybils and Famous Men, now preserved
in the Museo di Sant' Appollonia. May
these traits be interpreted to signify, that
the master from whom Andrea learned his
craft as a painter, was one of the late
'Giotteschi ' ?

It is, perhaps, as a colourist that the
originality of Andrea as a painter is most
obvious and significant. Wholly unlike
Fra Angelico, who still employs the pure
and brilliant pigments of the Giottesque
masters, though transfused by that skyey
tint of his, which seems some actual re-
flection of his vision of heavenly things,
Andreadoesnot even attempt, with Lorenzo
Monaco or Fra Filippo, to reduce such a
palette to a colour-scheme, whose harmony
is the result of a certain fusion, rather than
an exquisite contrast, of its elements. Nor
does he, like Massaccio, while following
essentially the methods of his master,
Masolino, seek to render the pigments ot
the Giottesque painters, not less decora-
tive in efFect, but more expressive of the
effect of colour in external nature. On the

229

Andrea dal Castagno

contrary, he employs a palette which does
not appear to have been derived from the
practice of any of his predecessors. The
naturalism with which Andrea attempts to
render the colour of ' the outward shows
of things ' is even more original and unpre-
cedented than his rendering of form. A
clear leaf-green, deep purples, a bricky red
inclining at times to purple, and a heavy,
golden yellow, are the predominant local
tints of the upper frescoes in the refectory
at Sant' Appollonia. Blue is used but spar-
ingly ; gold not at all. But the most re-
markable trait of their colouring is the
device by which the painter seeks to effect
a fusion of his pigments, despite the limita-
tions of the medium in which he is work-
ing. He employs it in the figure on the

left of the group of the three Maries, who
stand on the left of the Cross ; where he
colours the mantle a clear green, shot with
a deep purple in the shadows. Again, in
the lower fresco of the Last Supper, the
green draperies of St. James and the smalt
blue draperies of St. Thomas are both shot
with purple in the shadows.

But my space is already gone, and I have
been able to touch but hurriedly upon a few
of the more significant and characteristic
traits of these frescoes : still, perhaps, I
have been able to show that, obscure as
may appear the development of Andrea's
manner, and the chronology of his works,
they are questions which, despite their
difficulty, we may yet in great measure hope
to solve.

APPENDIX

DOC I.

Firenze: R. Archivio di Stato; Arch, delle Decime : Quar-
tiere, Santo Spirito ; Gonfalone, Scala ; Filza, 1431 ; N° verde,
333 ; fol. 4 recto, Denunzia di Andrea di Bartolommeo' detto
Burbanza.

Gofalone della iscala
quartiere disanto ispirito
Andrea dibartolomeo sitruoua descritto

alcatasto neldetto gofalone insoldi tre sold] 3
Andrea predetto e una pouerissima
p«sona eistato questo anno infermo
trallo ispedale disanta raaria nuoua
eloispedale depizocheri piu demese
quatro e a lefra scritte sustanzie
edebiti
In prima una chasetta posta nepopolo
di santo andrea alinari luogo detto
alinari intorno intorno uia dua pe-
zuoli diuigna poste nel detto popolo
frailoro uochaboli ecofini
Anchora upezuolo diuigna choboscho
euna meza chasetta poste nepopolo
disapagolo aema luogo detto anifor-
zati frailoro uochaboli ecofini lauo-
rali santi del gregia popolo disanto
andrea alinari e auisi ricolto suso
ilterzo [? primo] anno barili undici
diuino esecondo anno barili quatro
diuino. elterzo anno barili cinque
upochodolio isterzato idetti tre anni
barili sette eraeno - - - uino barili 7

olio umezo orcfo - olio mezo orcio

Andrea detto anni quaranta o piu anni 40
adebito tutti icatasti eacatoni sono

fiorini sette soldi tredici aoro fiorinj 7 sold] 13 aoro

Nona nechasa neletto nemaseritia
in firenze ese infermasse licouiene
ire alospedale recoma«dauisi perla
amore didio
fol. 19 tergo,

quar" Santo Spirito G° Schala Andrea

di bartolomeo deto burbanza - sold) 3
Recho Bernardo di sir saluestro adi
2C;Gienaro [1430-1]

DOC. II.

Firenze: R. Archivio di Stato; Arch, delle Decime; Quar-
tiere, Santo Spirito; Gonfalone, Scala; Campione 1430;
N° verde 393, fol. 170 tergo,

Denunzia of ' Andrea dj Bartolomeo decto burbanza.'
DOC. III.

Firenze ; R. Archivio di Stato ; Arch, delle Decime, Quartiere
Santo Spirito ; Gonfalone, Scala ; Campione 1427, N° verde 64,
fol. 210 tergo,

+ M cccc° xxvij
Sustanzie dj
Andrea dj bartolomeo detto burbanza. A diprestanzone

nulla
Vna Chasetta dalauoratore posta nel popolo disanto andrea
allinarj luogho detto linarj apn'w via aij° & iij° & iiij° dant"
dicione quaratesj.
Pezzi 4 diterra cho[n] j 1 chasetta apartene cioe ladetta
chasetta posta nel popolo disan pagholo aema cholloro
vochaboli & confini chome appare per lasua scritfa G
N°c. 14.
Lauora jdetti beni Nerj dj bartolo edomenicho dipiero

disaluj
Rende Lanno
Vino bar//;' 10 asoldj 22 ilbarile lire n
Lengnie chatasta J aXire j soldj 10 lacatasta lire — soldj^io
Soma lire 11 soldj 10 sono a.soldj 80 per iiorino — iiorinj 2

soldj 17 danarj 6
Vale a Ragione dj 7 perc" Iiorinj 31 soldj 2

Incharichj

Andrea sopradetto dannj 37 iiorinj 200

Somma il suo valsente disopra iiorinj 31 soldj 2
A Somma ptrincharicho dunabocha iiorinj 200
Postolj perluficio soldj iij
DOC. IV.

Firenze: R. Archivio di Stato; Conventisoppressi, N° grosso82,
Sant' Appollonia, N° 10 ; Ricordi, Debitori e Creditori, Spese_di
Fabbrica, Compre, Fitti, Vendite, &c. dal 1429 al 1515.
fol. 1 recto,

Alnome didio Amen Anno dowinj M cccc xxviiij

Qvi Apresso Jnquesto libro Siscriuera psllo Maestro Antonio

dj Saluj damarcalla frate dj Santo sptri'ro difirenfe dei

fratj heremitanj dellordiwe disancto Agostino, Confessore

alpresente delle donne Emonistero dj Su«cra Appollonia

230

NOTES, PLATE I. PORTRAIT IN MINIATURE
OF MADAME DE POMPADOUR, BY FRANQOIS
BOUCHER ; IN THE WALLACE COLLECTION.

popolo djsancfo lorenzo difirence Jnuia Sangallo Ari-
uerentia didio Edella Vergine Maria sua Madre Edisanc/a
appollonia Auocata didcc.'o Monistero // Tucte lespese
Sifarawno Jnhedificio diquello Espetialmente in Vna in-
fermeria refectorio ouero sala Androne chiostro eschale
E dormitorio consuoj Aconcj apresso. Per Suora Cecilia
di pa<;cino dimessrr apardo donatj Alpresente badessa
disopradfcfo monistero dj sancta Appollonia Conuolonta
Econsentimento ditucte laltre Suore donne didtcto Monis-
tero Kper ognaltra spesa occorresse p^r decto Monistero
ol. i tergo,

Ricordo chelsopra decto Monistero disancta appollonia
Aueua quattro casette allato dalla parte djsopra uerso
laporta disanc/o gallo fralle qualj uera Vna casa chonorto
dello spedale dj Sancfo gallo & sanca quella no« poteuano
fare elsopradtcfo lauorio & hedi6cio, fudibisongnio lacom-
prassono dal decro spedale, funne meccano Ser Michele
spedalingho dj Sancta maria Nuoua dj firence per pregio
dj fiorinj dugento doro nettj aldecto spedale / Etucte
lespese occorressono in corte pdla licentia didicta uendita
Eanche gabelle & carte &c. pagasse eldecto monistero,
fudibisongnio chella d«c/a badessa Suora Cecilia mandasse
in corte diroma Esuplicasse alsancto padre desse licentia
al prior; Messjc bernardo dello spedale di sancto gallo
potesse ladecta casa uenders aldecto monistero dj sa«c/a
appollonia Epi-ttanto cauo dj corte Vna bolla della quale
questo e eltenor* Ecopia

[Here follows the text of the Bull, dated, ' v Jdns ottubris
Pontificatus nostrj Anno duodecimo,' i.e. n October 1429.]

ol. 3 tergo,

Ricordo che adj xxviij dottobre Mccccxxviiij" Suora Cecilia
badessa deldccto Monistero di Sancta. Appollonia Allogho
allorenco dj giouannj da Ribuoia Maestro dj murare
ellauorio Et hedificio dispone difare in acrescimento

Andrea dal Castagno

didicta monistero per Vna scripta soscripta dimano delluna
parte & dellaltra della quale la copia e Questa.

[Here follows a. copy of the agreement.)
fol. 6 recto,

' Spese fatte pfrfare disfar* Cinque case allato ald«c/o
monistero di Sancta appollonia ' &c.

[The first entry is for work done on ' 8 dj febraio i429p*rinsino
adi 24 dj marzo dtcto anno.' After this, few or none of the
entries relate to the expenses of the new monastery ]

DOC. V.

Firenze: R. Archivio di Stato ; Conventi Soppressi, N°"grosso
82, Sant' Appollonia, N" 1, ' Spoglio delle Cartapecora esistenti
nel Venerab. Monasterio di S. Appollonia.'

N° 512. 12 Ott'<-' 1429.

Martino V. a cagioneche le Monache non avendo infermeria
venivano a comunicarsi il male nel tempo del mal con-
tagioso .... ad istanza della Badessa Cecilia, commette
all' Arciv° fior" . . . . di dar facolta di comprare una casa
contigua di proprieta di Frati di S. M« a S. Gallo per
farui la d" Infermeria. . . .

N° 534. 4 gbre 1434.

Indulgenza plenaria (simile a quella del 1439) colla sola
varieta che il 3' Altare e la Pieta del chiostro di S. Appol-
lonia. data l'anno 3 di Eugenio IV.

N° 557. 27 Apn'le (1439 pare) anno 8°.

Indulgenza plenaria e delle chiese di Roma, concessa ne'
respetti 8 giorni delle d" Chiese, alle Monache, novizie,
ed alle serventi di S. Appoll 1 che visitano un' altare, e
l'altar del coro, e il crocifisso del Chiostro, dicendo ad
ogni altare de sud' un Miserere, un' Ave, un Pater, e
1' orazione Deus omnium fidelium pastorum

JV* MISCELLANEOUS NOTES J»*

A MINIATURE BY FRANCOIS BOUCHER 1
iLTHOUGH Boucher's name
is generally to be found in the
lists of miniaturists appended
to the works of those specialists
(who have lately written on
this still imperfectly-explored
sub-section of painting, he

,has hardly ever been seriously

considered from this point of view. One's first im-
pulse is, indeed, to put down en bloc the miniatures
currently ascribed to him to the charming person
who so skilfully copied in miniature many of his
paintings — that is, toMarie-JeanneBuseau, Madame
Boucher. I must frankly own that, with the ex-
ception of the portrait now to be discussed, I have
never seen — ce qui s'appelle de mes yenx vu — a
miniature that could seriously be ascribed to the
dazzlingly brilliant master of decoration, who was
also on occasion genre-painter, and more rarely
portraitist ; but who, as a rule, counterfeited only
the fair sex. In the catalogue of the great exhi-
tion of miniatures held at the South Kensington
Museum in 1865, 1 find the following two entries:
No. 141, Boucher and His Wife, by Himself, vel-
lum (lent by Mr. George Bonner), and No. 147,
Yanloo and His Wife, by Boucher, vellum (same
collection). Unfortunately I have never seen the
miniatures so summarily described, and as to their
1 Reproduced, Plate I, page 232.

present whereabouts can say nothing. The cata-
logue does not say whether they bore the signature
of Boucher. The Vanloo of the miniature is no
doubt Carle Vanloo, with whom Boucher made
the obligatory journey to Italy — he who shared
with the Pompadour's favourite painter the ob-
loquy of later times, and is responsible for the
now obsolete verb vanlotiser, which summed up the
art of Boucher's brother-painter more contemptu-
ously than did the still subsisting marivaudage,
the exquisitely-finished prose of Marivaux. This
portrait of Boucher's enthusiastic and discerning
patroness, the Marquise de Pompadour, in the
Wallace Collection (No. 89, Catalogue of Minia-
tures), I hold to be beyond doubt the work of
the master himself, and, what is more, a portrait
of the Marquise differing essentially from any
other that his brush has given to the world.
But, again, I shall no doubt be asked whether
it is not in the highest degree improbable that
the foremost if not the greatest painter of France,
when at the very zenith of fame — at the moment
when he was carrying out with the boldest and
most practised of brushes those vast and splendid
decorative compositions Le Lever du Soleil and
Le Coucher du Soleil now at Hertford House
— should quietly settle down to execute a mi-
niature of such relatively small dimensions, of
such exquisite refinement and delicacy as is
this one. But against improbabilities we must

233

A Miniature by Francois Boucher

strive to set up what amounts to a certainty,
based on the design and technique of the little
piece. The touch in its vivacity, its assurance, is
Boucher's very own ; the sharp high-lights on the
boldly-broken draperies of satin are his, not less
distinctive of his manner and his individuality be-
ing the scheme of colour, the brilliant, half-conven-
tional treatment of the landscape, the treatment,
too, of the gaudy, unreal flowers. The transparent
shadows with their ambre tone, are, moreover, in
his best manner, and the famous artist sets his
imprimatur on the whole with the signature in the
left-hand corner— ' F. Boucher ' — this correspond-
ing exactly to the signature of several of the
paintings in the Wallace Collection, and being
manifestly his own writing with the brush.
Surely no mere limner, be he ever so much a
master of his craft, has this vivacity, this breadth
in littleness, this sense of largeness and space,
that makes us almost forget the extreme exiguity
of the dimensions. These qualities are just those
which the copyist, even working under the eye of
the originator, does not get. And moreover,
unless I am greatly mistaken, there is extant no
portrait of Madame de Pompadour of exactly this
type from which a reduced copy could have been
taken. Jacques Charlier, the noted miniaturist
and gouache painter, did admirable copies of and
adaptations from Boucher's compositions, to-
gether with some things of which it is not easy to
say whether they are merely inspired by the
peintre du roi or stolen from him. The Wallace
Collection contains an extraordinarily complete
collection of these delicately-touched blond-toned
gouaches, from which it may easily be seen how
wide a gulf separates the rather mechanical and
monotonous dexterity of Charlier from the true
brilliance, the true impulse, which burst forth in
the little Madame de Pompadour of his exemplar.
Nearer to this last than anything else in the Wal-
lace Collection is the Lady in a Costume of Pom-
padour fashion (No. 102 in the Catalogue of
Miniatures), which has a piquancy, an iniimite
that are all its own. Yet between the technique of
even this sprightly little piece and the Madame
de Pompadour, its near neighbour here, a gulf
yawns. The latter must have been a wholly ex-
ceptional effort on the part of the king's painter,
who was also, and above all, the court painter of
the favourite. In conception and style, in ar-
rangement, it stands midway between two well-
known portraits in oils. These are the Marquise
au Jardin, of which one version is in the collec-
tion of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, and another
in the Jones collection at South Kensington, and the
larger and more sumptuous Marquise sur sa Chaise-
Longue, once in the collection of the earl of
Lonsdale, and now at Waddesdon, in that of
Miss Alice de Rothschild. Identical with this last
in costume and pose, but perhaps more living,
closer knit in the modelling and execution, a trifle

234

more happily individualized, too, is the three-
quarter length portrait in the National Gallery of
Scotland. Of this last there is a fairly accurate
miniature copy in the Wallace Collection (No. 79
in the Catalogue of Miniatures), and it is instruc-
tive to see how dull and lifeless it looks by the
side of the original which we are now discussing.
Another portrait differing wholly in design from
those comprised in this group is that very attrac-
tive oil painting No. 418 in the Wallace Collection
(Gallery XVIII) which depicts the Marquise stand-
ing wide-eyed and self-conscious — anxious to please
yet somewhat weary — in a leafy bower that encloses
a marble Nymph and Cupid of the true Boucher
type. Here she looks in her supreme elegance
the woman who feels the responsibilities and no
longer enjoys the delights of her difficult position.
The exquisite fashion of her demi-toilette of peach-
blossom silk, trimmed with white or silver gauze,
proves her once more to have been the best-
dressed woman and the least fagotee of her time.
In the miniature of the Wallace Collection there
is a great resemblance of mould and feature to the
famous life-size pastel portrait by Latour, which
was at the Salon of 1755, and is now in the Louvre.
And yet nothing could well be in more striking
contrast than the langour and ennui of Latour's
Marquise, posing for the woman of learning and
accomplishment easily worn, and the fresh, charm-
ing coquetry of our Pompadour, with her piquant
costume of blue and white satin — midway between
that of the comedy shepherdess and the great
lady — her dainty feet, naked and sandalled, her
garlands and enwoven chains of fresh flowers, her
general air of satisfaction with self and with life.

I should judge the miniature to have been
executed some years before the ornate semi-official
portrait of Waddesdon, with its subtle suggestion
offadeur and physical langour peeping forth under
the well-sustained air of the court beauty en titre.
This last was in the Salon of 1757, where, with
other things, it was noted by the pencil of G. de
St. Aubin. A repetition, signed and dated 1758,
is in the collection of Baron Adolphe de Roths-
child. The miniature of the Wallace Collection
is, quite apart from its rarity and its exquisiteness
of quality, one of the most individual and charm-
ing portraits extant of the elegant and accom-
plished woman who was so well able to attract
admiration and regard of a certain kind, so little
able to evoke genuine sympathy of the more
emotional order. Claude Phillips.

SHUTTERS OF A TRIPTYCH BY
GERARD DAVID 2

The four paintings here reproduced adorn the

shutters of a triptych, the central panel of which

no doubt represented the taking down of our Lord

2 Reproduced, Plate II, page 235. Oak : h. o ra £65 ; b. o™ 275-

« x o z

a < ?!

H a * <

n o

B U o

S 5 5

<■> s

Z C 2 H tt. B tn

Shutters of a Triptych by Gerard David

from the Cross, or more probably the Deposition.
It is not known where this central panel now is
or whether it has been destroyed. The shutters
were acquired by the late earl of Ashburnham in the
early part of the last century, and passed from his
collection into that of the late Mr. Henry Willett,
of Brighton, from whom they were purchased by
the late Mr. Rudolph Kann, of Paris, and there is
now little chance of their returning to this country.
When we reflect on the very inadequate manner
in which the early Netherlandish masters, with
the exception of John van Eyck and Gerard
David, are represented in the National Gallery,
and the many opportunities of acquiring authentic
works that have occurred and been neglected
during the last twenty years, it makes us feel
rather ashamed of the manner in which our
gallery is managed. But to return to our subject:
The shutters have been sawn in their thickness
and parquetted. The Annunciation is represented
on what was the exterior. The archangel and the
Virgin stand facing each other; Gabriel, on the
dexter side, clad in an alb girt with a tasselled
cord, holds a sceptre in his left hand, and with his
right raised and outstretched has just delivered
his message. Mary, attired in a simple dress and
mantle, with a half-closed book in her left hand
and her right raised, bows her head in token
of her submission to the divine will ; the Holy
Dove is flying down to her. These two charming
figures, remarkable for their simplicity and ex-
quisite purity, have hardly been surpassed by any
master. They are painted in grisaille, the flesh
lightly tinted and the hair heightened with gold ;
the angel here and in the Annunciation of the
Sigmaringen Museum 3 are painted from the same
model, and both in pose and attire closely
resemble each other.

Interior. — In the foreground of the dexter panel
the Carriage of the Cross is represented, a com-
position of four figures. Our Lord, crowned with
thorns and clad in a dark grey robe, his arms
round the transverse beam of the Cross, is on the
point of falling beneath its weight. Behind him
an old man with grey hair and beard, Simon of
Cyrene, is endeavouring to diminish the weight of
the burden by lifting and supporting the cross ; he
wears a greenish-blue tunic with a purple hood.
On his left is a soldier who, grinding his teeth
with a vicious look, raises his hand to strike the
Saviour. Another in front with a threatening
gesture tugs at the rope with which our Lord is
girt to make him advance. In the immediate
front are a couple of flowering plants and a dog
running at full speed. On a height in the back-
ground Christ is seen hanging on the cross
between the thieves, with Mary Magdalene stand-
ing at the foot looking up, and on the left the
Virgin Mother, Mary Cleophas, and St. John, the

s Exhibited at Bruges in 1902, No. 12S of the catalogue. Photo-
graphed by Bruckmann.

last kneeling; to the right, at some little distance,
are Longinus and the centurion.

The Resurrection is represented on the other
panel. The risen Saviour, clad in a crimson
mantle, stands before the sepulchre hewn out in
the side of a rock. His right hand is raised as in
the act of blessing ; with the left he holds a cross
with a white banner charged with a red cross.
On the right a soldier, fast asleep, is seated on a
mound, with his arms crossed resting on his
knees ; another, on the left, apparently only half
awake, grasps his lance with both hands ; a third,
wrapped in a cloak, lying at full length in the fore-
ground, has just awoke, and is raising his hand to
shade his eyes. On a road in the half distance
our Lord and the two disciples are seen journeying
towards a castellated building on a height in the
background. Through one of the windows they
are seen at table, our Lord in the act of breaking
bread. The details of the soldier's costume are
well rendered. This work appears to have been
painted towards the close of" the fifteenth cen-
tury.

W. H. James Whale.

THE SOLDIER AND THE

LAUGHING GIRL

BY JAN VER MEER OF DELFT '

This masterpiece by Ver Meer of Delft, which by
the kindness of the owner, Mrs. Joseph, we have
been permitted to reproduce as a frontispiece, is
well-known to all students of that now famous
painter. It is strange to think that only fifteen
or twenty years ago the name of Ver Meer was
hardly remembered, much less regarded as a rival
in honour to those of De Hoogh and Terborch.
It is unfair to press comparisons between three
such consummate masters of genre, but it is evi-
dent that, while De Hoogh conceals his art by his
splendid sincerity, and Terborch in his best works
by his exquisite taste, Ver Meer has no such
shyness. At a glance we can recognize his mar-
vellous brushwork, his sense of pattern, his
astonishing feeling of light and atmosphere. He
is always determined that his point shall not be
mistaken, and so forces his sitter upon the obser-
vation by unusual breadth, unusual vividness,
unusual contrast, or by an unusual point of vision,
often by one much nearer to the spectator than
was the practice of his contemporaries. Of this
trait of character The Soldier and the Laughing
Girl is a magnificent example ; one feels that
Sargent might have viewed the scene so. It may
too, perhaps, explain the reason why Ver Meer,
of all the great Dutchmen, is the one with
whom the modern mind is most completely
sympathetic.

< Reproduced, frontispiece, page 172.

237

The ''Virgin of Salamanca"*

THE 'VIRGIN OF SALAMANCA' BY THE
MAITRE DE FLEMALLE 6
The recent exhibition at the Burlington Fine
Art Club of the picture now illustrated, and that
of other works by or attributed to the same
painter at the exhibition of ' Les primitifs
Francais,' in Paris last year, have added greatly
to the interest taken in the works and personality
of this important early master.

An ancient replica of this composition, with
some variations, indicating the later date of pro-
duction of the picture, has, moreover, been recently
added by bequest to the Museum of the Louvre,
and French art critics are now advancing the
theory that the master was one of the chief
luminaries of the early French school.

There does not, however, seem to be any valid
evidence in support of that assumption. There
are, on the other hand, direct and significant
indications connecting the painter with an adjoin-
ing country — the Spanish Peninsula. Nearly all
the works of this master, of which the original
provenance has, in recent times, been discovered,
have, as has been already noted by the German
art critic, Von Tschudi, been traced to Spain.
The present picture was acquired in that country
many years ago.

More directly relevant and important, however,
is the fact that there is internal evidence in the
present work, of a direct circumstantial nature, to
the effect that the painter, whoever he was,
whether of Flemish, French or Spanish nationality,
had visited and worked, and indeed, probably had
his ultimate home in a particular part of the
Peninsula.

In a further communication this evidence will
be discussed and illustrated by reference to other
works of the master, or his following, of which
no note has hitherto been taken.

For convenience of reference, and on the basis
of evidence which will be adduced later on, the
picture now illustrated is entitled ' The Virgin
of Salamanca.'

J. C. Robinson.

A TUNIC FROM A CEMETERY

IN EGYPT 5

Among the most interesting ornaments of the
garments unearthed in the cemeteries of Upper
and Middle Egypt are the woven silk panels and
bands sometimes found on tunics of the Byzantine
period. The decorations of the earlier Roman
epoch were mostly wrought into the garments
themselves, but these silk pieces were woven
entirely separate from the robes to which they
were afterwards sewn. They have mostly survived
as fragments. The common practice among
searchers in the cemeteries has been to strip off

5 Reproduced, Plate III, page 239.

the ornaments from the robes — greatly to the
detriment of their historical value — and to discard
the rest as worthless. The museum at South Ken-
sington has, however, been fortunate in securing
a complete linen tunic, still preserving its silken
ornaments, though in a somewhat frayed condition.
It belongs to a period when the toga or pallium had
fallen into disuse for common wear, and the tunic
was worn as an outer garment. It is about 4 ft. 6 in.
long, of ample proportions, and provided with long
sleeves. The woven silk ornaments consist of two
narrow bands, or clavi, passing over the shoulders,
and ending on both front and back near the waist.
Circular medallions (orbiculi) are applied below,
and the sleeves have rectangular panels over the
wrists. The colour is purple, the patterns being
in white. On the bands and the medallions are
conventional plant forms. The more interesting
ornament is found on the sleeves. It consists of
a mounted horseman holding aloft a sceptre or
mace, and attacked from below by a foot-soldier
with a long spear. In the lower corner is a long-
necked bird, perhaps a stork. Above the horseman
is the word zaxapiov. The design is a favourite
one ; the museum already possesses two or three
examples, woven to different scales. The tunic
probably dates from the sixth or seventh century ;
possibly from the fifth. 6 The last-named century
is perhaps too early, as the secret of silk cultivation
was then unknown in the west, and the precious
material was of necessity used in a sparing
manner. As to the locality of production, the
Greek inscription points to a Byzantine origin,
and this is strengthened by the fact that similar
silk weavings sometimes have Christian subjects
and symbols {e.g. St. Michael and the Dragon, the
Cross, the A and O). But the term Byzantine
must be used in a wide sense. They may have
been woven at Alexandria, or in one of the Greek
cities of Asia ; it is even possible that they were
produced in the royal weaving factory at Con-
stantinople. It is evident that they were expressly
woven for decorating a tunic. The clavus, with
its roundel and narrow connecting band, is all
woven in one piece, the parts cut away having
been without ornament.

A. F. Kendrick.

THE OXFORD EXHIBITION OF
HISTORICAL PORTRAITS

This series of portraits of personages who died
between 1625 and 1714 undoubtedly did not con-
tain many pictures of high artistic importance,
and the works exhibited were too often damaged
by repainting, but those who saw the collection
are not likely to forget it, if only from the parts

6 Dr. Forrer (Romische und Byzantinische SeidenTextilicn, PI. vii.)
attributes the piece with the horseman to the fourth or fifth
century, but he has been misled by an imperfect example into re-
placing the initial Z by M, and has assigned the date accordingly.

238

"«"

SILVER

NOTES, l'LATE IV. SALVERS
DESIGNED AND MADE BY THE
LATE GILBERT MARKS

which many of the originals played in the most
disturbed and dramatic epoch of our history. To
the student of English painting, however, the
collection was far more instructive than if it had
been composed entirely of works by well-known
artists, since it was possible to form from it a fair
general idea of the state of painting in England
during the seventeenth century.

In the metropolis we see the fashionable studios
of Van Dyck, Lely, and Kneller, each surrounded
by a crowd of pupils, drapery painters, and
copyists, English and foreign. Then we have the
foreigner working in England, from the skilful
professional such as Oliver de Crats to the peri-
patetic journeyman who travelled from town to
town exploiting his smaller talent. Last we have
the local English painters such as Taylor of
Oxford and Gandy of Exeter; the one untrained
and clumsy, but once at least showing an em-
phasis and grandeur which make the coming of a
Reynolds seem hardly wonderful ; the other the
actual master of Reynolds who taught him much
which he remembered and practised to the end of
his life. Those responsible for the exhibition and
the catalogue have done a most valuable piece of
work, and their example might well be followed in
other quarters.

GILBERT MARKS: SILVERSMITH

There has lately passed away Gilbert Marks,
silversmith, an artist of delicate grace and charm,
whose name will probably take high rank in the
estimation of the collector and connoisseur.
Mr. Marks's career, though brief — for he has died
before passing the middle age — was a protest
against the ordinary conditions under which the
modern silversmith has to work. He insisted that
the smith must be at once the designer, the artist,
and craftsman. He would have no dies, no
machinery, no repetitions ; every piece that left
his hand was an original, and of no essential part of
any piece is there any duplicate. He would have
no polishing that would destroy the beauty of the
metal's natural colour, no turning that would re-
move the marks of the tool or injure the modelling.
H is pieces are not the mere vessels of silver that are
annually set before the public of to-day, but works
of art which in their beauty of design and handling
repay the torment and the love of the craftsman.
He was not alone in his efforts; but there are
not many such as he — still fewer who regarded
their art as a noble and inspired thing. He
despised the showy and pretentious products of
the shops which in these days suffer so greatly
from the paralysing conditions of the ordinary
silversmith's workshop and from the fatal repres-
sion of the trade union — which are stamped by
machinery, cast by the score, reproduced to order
by electrotype, without more pride taken in the
manufacture of them than attends the production

Gilbert IMarJ^s : Silversmith

of an American desk. For these things have no
more artistic quality in them than is brought to
them by the original designer, who rarely sees,
much less touches, the work itself.

Gilbert Marks was wholly original in his designs.
Gifted with a dainty imagination, with pure feeling
for form and line, and, to harmonize all, a passion
for simplicity, he bent his craftsmanship to the pro-
duction of a series of beautiful objects which cannot
fall far short of 750 or 800 pieces, all of them in the
hands of collectors. The last decade of his life
was his finest period, during which he realized the
fancy and refinement of his design by the intelli-
gence of his work. Fish or lizards, for example,
would provide him with a delightful motif of deco-
ration, but simple flowers — wild ones for choice —
are his principal theme ; and the strong strain of
field-poetry in his nature adapted them to arrange-
ments elegant and appropriate. What more
natural than that a rose-water dish should bear a
border of loves and rose-garlands ? That on a
beer-beaker there should be beaten up a decoration
of cunningly devised hops ? That a punch-bowl
should be embellished with a tracery of poppies ?
His design was nearly always pure and felicitous,
and the execution sound.

The silver-lover who is something more than a
worshipper of the hall-mark must recognize the
beauty and power that lay in the hammer, the
raising tools and tracers of a repousse worker such
as Marks ; and appreciate the apparent ease with
which he could work the yielding metal, play
with his pattern and his ornament, and bring it
up to accents of sharpness or caress it into
liquid meltingness. On bowl, beaker, tazza, cup,
and dish, we have the pomegranate, the thistle,
blackberry, or what not — as unlike the dull
monotony of the million-struck fiddle-pattern
spoon as Marks himself was unlike the ordinary
Birmingham craftsman. It is the principle of
undying Greece and Etruria which we find in
work such as his — a touch of that art which alone
survives from ancient civilizations, and which alone
brings those nations face to face with ours — the
concrete testimony of ancient glories that other-
wise live but in the page of history. M. H. S.

THE VERONA GALLERY

All students of Italian painting will rejoice to
hear that there is at last some chance of the col-
lection of pictures in the Museo Civico at Verona
being cared for, preserved from the decay which
was rapidly overtaking them, and rearranged in
new galleries, better extended and better lighted.
The gallery of Verona has for long been a bye-
word for neglect and mismanagement. The very
title of Museo Civico, comprising as it does besides
the gallery of pictures a valuable collection of
Roman sculptures and other remains, was a per-
manent reproach to the municipality of Verona.

243

The Verona Gallery

In no other gallery can the works of the Veronese
school be studied in its entirety, and to many
students the splendid series of paintings by Stefano
di Zevio, Liberale, Morone, Giolfino, Girolamo
dai Libri, Paolo Morando da Cavazzola, and
Caroto, to say nothing of Paolo Caliari, and even
Titian, must have often come as a surprise and a
source of unexpected interest, sadly tempered,
however, by the deplorable condition into which
the pictures have been allowed to lapse, and the
utter neglect of all the first requirements of a
public picture-gallery.

This is now, we may hope, to be remedied. For
many years the civic authorities of Verona had
dispensed with the services of a director, small
as the salary usually is which may be attached to
such a post in Italy. But even paintings, like the
worm in the proverb, will turn at last and protest,
and the said authorities, as in the somewhat
analogous case of the McLellan collection of
pictures at Glasgow, have awoken to some sense
of the importance of their gallery.

Their first duty was to find a director brave
enough to face the gigantic task before him, and
to give up probably the remaining years of his life
to this duty, with but scanty hope of any pecuniary
reward or perhaps even the thanks of his fellow
citizens. Fortunately there was at hand Cavaliere
Pietro Sgulmero, lately vice-librarian and vice-
inspector of the monuments of Verona, whose
knowledge of Verona and its contents is probably
unsurpassed. Cavaliere Sgulmero would probably
not satisfy the demands of those who think that
only a painter can be qualified to direct a picture-
gallery; but he has addressed himself to the task
with all the equipment of a fine intelligence, deep-
seated knowledge, and true patriotic enthusiasm.

The collection has hitherto been lodged in a
portion of the Palazzo Pompei on the Adige
opposite to the beautiful church of San Zermo
Maggiore. It has been found possible to adapt
two or three large galleries already existing in the
palace, and it is proposed to extend the galleries
by building over the adjoining garden.

The collection will now be sorted and rearranged
in proper divisions and due chronology, a special
feature being made of the works of Paolo Caliari.
The work of restoration, which will occupy many
years to come, has been placed in the hands of
competent local artists, in whom confidence can
be placed, and who are under Cavaliere Sgulmero's
immediate observation. A catalogue will in due
course of time be prepared, and the gallery, when
completed, should become one of the most in-
teresting in north Italy. The ground floor of the
palace will be occupied by the Roman collections
and an important collection of natural science
belonging to the town.

The only danger lies in the disinclination of
civic authorities to disburse money in this direc-
tion. Money is at all times scarce in Italy, and

244

the Socialist element, which is at present very
powerful, both in general and local politics, is
opposed to anything like expenditure on art or
culture or any form of so-called luxury.

In spite of such forebodings, all readers of The
Burlington Magazine will surely wish Cavaliere
Sgulmero all good fortune in his enterprise, and
visitors to Verona will no doubt not lose the
chance of encouraging him in his work.

Lionel Cust.

GERMAN ART INSTITUTIONS IN ITALY

Almost a hundred years ago Italy, and more par-
ticularly Rome, was the ideal of German artists.
This love of a locality where the possibility for
work was so much greater than in the North
estranged many of the best men from their native
land, and from Carstens or Cornelius down to
Feuerbach they felt happy only while abroad.
What they produced after their return failed to be
in touch with the country and civilization amid
which they produced it, and perhaps this is the
main cause of the deficiencies of these artists.
This yearning for Rome did not fall in with a
period of national prosperity, or we should cer-
tainly have opened an academy there, such as the
French nation has kept up to this day. Perhaps
this may be looked upon rather as a stroke of good
fortune, for according to reports the French
Academy at Rome is an establishment without
any real raison d'etre nowadays, and has fulfilled
its mission long ago.

There are at the present day three German
establishments connected with art maintained in
Italy. The oldest is the Imperial German Archaeo-
logical Institute. Its reputation is a fine one, and
its achievements are well known in other countries
as well as our own. It enjoys the special patronage
of the present emperor.

The second establishment is the Institute for
the History of Art, in Florence. It is maintained
by a small state subsidy and the subscriptions of
a society formed to support it ; the University of
Leipzig contributes likewise, I believe, some pecu-
niary aid. The principal aim is to furnish German
and other art historians who are interested in the
study of Italian art with the help of a large library
and other material which students are unable to
take with them on their journey across the Alps.
There are pleasant accommodations for work, and,
generally speaking, the student will find the insti-
tute a valuable haven to start from even if the
object of his research should not actually be con-
tained within the walls of Florence itself. Pro-
fessor Brockhaus, formerly of the Leipzig Univer-
sity, has come into residence as head of the estab-
lishment. Since a semester at the institute in
Florence has been counted, under certain condi-
tions, as a semester at one of the German univer-
sities, there have always been one or two younger

German zArt Institutions in Italy

students there. With their help) the institute is
also made to serve in a limited manner as a bureau
of information for questions pertaining to the his-
tory of Italian art. The institute is upon the
point of publishing its first volume of studies.

The third establishment is of quite recent foun-
dation. The new Deutsche Ktinstlerbund, with
its headquarters at Weimar, has just bought the
Villa Romana at Florence and is going to refashion
it into a studio building for German artists. There
will be six such studios to commence with, and all
the necessary further accommodation for the artists
who are to take possession of them. The Kunstler-

bund intends to abandon the distribution of prizes
and medals at its exhibition and replace these by
assigning these studios for a fixed period of time
instead. Then, at last, German artists will have
a fine opportunity of studying the nude model in
the open air, an opportunity sorely missed in
northern climates. This new venture is principally
the work of Max Klinger, whose energy and dis-
interestedness in pushing the affair to a happy
consummation are especially to be lauded, because
twice before, when he was bent on carrying
out the same plan, his intentions were frustrated
in a most distressing manner. H. W. S.

J5T» ART IN AMERICA J&

Art Education

f\YO movements are tending
towards the advancement of
art in the United States : the
formation of Municipal Art
Societies in various cities
which are more or less closely
associated with the leagues
for civic improvement, and a
spirit of co-operation among
existing art societies. The Fine Arts Federation of
New York is the most powerful influence in this
latter direction, including as it does thirteen art
societies, each one being entitled to three represen-
tatives at the meetings. The purpose of eight of
these societies is to hold an annual exhibition, yet
New York has few galleries able to accommodate
them, and there seems to be a feeling that the chief
requisite for the advancement of art and the pros-
perity of the artist is that a large building be
erected and endowed, wherein one large annual
exhibition could be held and where the various
societies should have their headquarters. It is
a question whether the best solution of the
problem would not rather be the ability to hold
many small exhibitions under the same roof and at
the same time. Thus each society would maintain
its individual existence, and yet they might co-
operate in many ways.

A call for co-operation among the museums has
been issued by the Director of the Pennsylvania
Museum, Edwin A. Barber, and the following is
quoted from the monthly bulletin of the museum :
The time has arrived when the museums of this country, in
order to keep abreast with modern progress, must enter into
closer relations with each other than have existed in the past.
Heretofore the work of museums has been of a more or less
desultory character, and each curator has been a law unto
himself. The physician, the educator, the librarian, the
specialist, who holds aloof from his fellow workers, is left
behind in the race, his methods become antiquated and his
usefulness abridged. In this age of organization, of conventions
and congresses, the best effort of the individual results only in
an insignificant contribution to the total of human knowledge.
Men meet at stated periods to communicate their discoveries to
their fellows and to learn what has been accomplished by others
in wider fields.

The suggestion is here offered that curators of our various
museums, from Boston to San Francisco, meet annually for the
consideration of subjects relating to the most effective adminis-
tration of public museums. By holding these meetings in turn
at the various cities where important museums exist, a knowledge
of what is being accomplished throughout the United States will
be obtained, and the entire museum system of the country will
be greatly benefited. The Pennsylvania Museum and School of
Industrial Art is ready to take the initiative, and the curator will
be glad to receive the views of the directors and curators of
other museums on the subject.

Another step in this direction is the proposition
which emanated from Professor Nicholas Murray
Butler, president of Columbia University, New
York, looking toward the establishment of a
great art school within the grounds of the univer-
sity, which should be a combination of the present
School of Architecture of Columbia, the Art
Department of Teachers College, the schools of
the National Academy of Design and of the
Metropolitan Museum.

Then, too, there is a movement tending toward
the establishment of national art schools. The
first practical step in this direction has been the
granting by Congress on March i, 1905, of a
charter to the American Academy in Rome. The
Villa Mirafiori has been purchased, and efforts are
being made to secure an endowment fund of
one million dollars. Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan,
Mr. Henry Walters, Mr. William K. Vanderbilt,
and Harvard University, through Mr. Henry L.
Higginson, have each given one hundred thousand
dollars.

The other Mecca of all artists is Paris, and
while many schools in the United States have
scholarships to enable talented pupils to study in
that city, a National Institute is contemplated,
and only awaits the action of Congress to make it
an accomplished fact. Through the efforts of
Miss Matilda Smedley, the city of Paris has
given the institute a plot of ground, and in re-
cognition of this gift it is to be hoped that at an
early session Congress will vote the desired
appropriation of $250,000 for the erection of
a building. The plan is a very broad one, and in-
cludes an appropriation by each state to send one

245

iArt in ^America

or more pupils to the American National Art
Institute in Paris, passing first through a National
School to be located at Washington.

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The thirty-fifth annual report of the museum
shows that 1904 marked an epoch in its history.
Three deaths occurred among the trustees.
Samuel P. Avery, one of the original trustees, died
on August 12 ; Frederick W. Rhinelander, pre-
sident of the museum, died on September 25 ; and
Louis P. di Cesnola, for twenty-five years the
director and secretary of the museum, on
November 20. This has led to an entire re-
organization. The present officers are J. Pierpont
Morgan, president ; Rutherford Stuyvesent, first
vice-president ; John Steward Kennedy, second
vice-president ; Robert W. de Forest, secretary ;
and John Crosby Brown, treasurer.

The future policy of the museum is outlined,
beginning with the appointment of Sir Caspar
Purdon Clarke as director. The next step will
be the complete organization of the museum into
a greater number of departments and securing for
each department a thoroughly capable curator.
For the first time the museum is in a position
to build up the collection according to a compre-
hensive plan, and it will be the aim of the trustees
to assemble beautiful objects and display them
harmoniously, grouping the masterpieces of dif-
ferent countries and times in such relation and
sequence as to illustrate the history of art in the
broadest sense, to make plain its teachings, and to
inspire and direct its national development.

Special stress is laid on the need of a collection
of American art, and a list is published of fifty-
seven names of some of the best-known deceased
American painters who either are not at all, or
are not adequately, represented in the museum.
By thus making public the wants of the museum
it is hoped that the generosity and patriotism
of our private citizens, who own the finest works
of art, will lead them ' to give to their ownership
a public use.'

Necessary legislation has been secured for the
extension of the museum by a new wing at an
expense not to exceed $1,250,000. Messrs. McKim,
Mead and White have been selected as architects.

During 1904 the museum has substantially
realized the full amount of Jacob S. Rogers's
bequest, amounting to $4,904,811, assuring an
annual income of over $200,000 for ' the purchase
of rare and desirable art objects and books for the
library.'

Some of the important donations of the year
are : the ' Adams Gold Vase,' the gift of Edward
D. Adams ; A Street in Venice and The Candy
Vendor, by Robert Blum, presented by Wm. J.
Baer and the estate of Alfred Corning Clark;
four paintings were presented by George A. Hearn,

246

the portrait of Baron Arnold Le Roye by Van
Dyck, portrait of a lady by Beechey, a seaport
by Claude Lorrain, and a landscape with figures
by Richard Wilson ; 128 musical instruments were
added to her collection by Mrs. John Crosby
Brown; and a collection of 4,210 objects known
as the Farman collection, consisting of Greek,
Roman, and Egyptian coins and other antique
art objects, was given by D. O. Mills.

The most important purchase from the income
of the Rogers fund was the Dino collection of
arms and armour. Three paintings were also
added to the collections : Christ and Virgin, by
Mostaert ; A Nativity by Greco ; and a head
by Greuze. Other purchases from this fund
include thirty-seven specimens of European
faience of the sixteenth century ; The Entomb-
ment of Christ, an enamelled terra-cotta group
dated 1487 ; a large mosaic of Roman workman-
ship ; a collection of Japanese armour ; and 140
books for the library.

Lewis and Clark Exhibition

Scarcely a year passes without an exhibition
being held in some part of this vast country, and
no exhibition is complete without a department
of art. The exhibition commemorating the
Lewis and Clark expedition, the pioneer settlers
of the western section of the United States, was
formally opened at Portland, Oregon, on the 1st
of June, and will continue to be the centre of
attraction until the 15th of October.

The division of Fine Arts is ably managed by
the well-known painter, Frank Vincent DuMond.
The exhibition of paintings was collected en-
tirely by invitation, and is not confined to any
one period or nationality. There are character-
istic examples of the early French and English
masters, and the Barbizon school is extremely
well represented. One of the most interesting
canvases is the famous Millet, The Man with
the Hoe, which is owned by Mr. W. S. Crocker,
of San Francisco. Every phase of the Impres-
sionist movement is shown, from Manet and
Degas to the Americans Theodore Robinson and
Childe Hassan. There are portraits by the early
American painters, excellent examples of the trio
of great American landscape painters of the nine-
teenth century, Innes, Wyant, and Homer Martin,
and several portraits by Sargent. Whistler is
also represented by several characteristic works,
and all the prominent men of to-day have at least
one good picture on exhibition.

The Fine Arts building is a fire-proof structure
consisting of seven galleries, each about twenty-
five by thirty-five feet, and built around two sides
of a square, with the entrance in the angle.
Although this is only a temporary building, after
the close of the exhibition a permanent art gallery
will be established in Portland, and Mr. DuMond

will superintend the installation of the paintings
before leaving the Pacific coast to return to his
work in New York.

Competitions

For the fourth time American art students will
be given an opportunity to compete for the
Lazarus scholarship for the study of mural
painting. As may be recalled, the fund carries
$1,000 a year for three years. The primary con-
ditions are that the competitor be an American
citizen, a man, and unmarried. Furthermore, the
candidate must pass preliminary examinations in
perspective and artistic anatomy, and paint a
presentable nude from the life. These examina-
tions will be held at the National Academy of
Design, in the city of New York, during the week
beginning Monday, October 23, 1905, at nine
o'clock a.m.

Those passing the ordeal will then be confronted

z/frt in ^America

by a second examination, which will begin on
Monday, October 30, 1905, under conditions
hereafter to be indicated.

The National Sculpture Society, through the
generosity of its Honorary President, Mr. J. Q. A.
Ward, and that of one of its lay members,
Mr. I. W. Drummond, is offering two prizes, one
of five hundred dollars and one of two hundred
dollars, for a competition in portraiture. The
first prize is to be awarded to the best portrait in
the round, the second prize to the best portrait
in relief.

Works entered for this competition are to be
judged in the early part of November, 1905, by a
jury selected by the society at large. A pro-
spectus governing the competition may be had by
addressing the Secretary of the National Sculpture
Society at 215, West 57th Street, New York.

(For list of exhibitions in the United States see
' Exhibitions open during June.')

jar* LETTERS TO THE EDITORS Jar*

THE DESTRUCTION OF THAMES
SCENERY

Gentlemen, —

Will you permit me to call the attention
of the wide and influential circle of your readers
to the urgent need of public intervention for the
preservation of Thames scenery ?

Every year the upper Thames is losing something
of what is left of its primitive charm. Through-
out by far the greater part of the river from Ted-
dington to Oxford there is hardly a mile in which
some lamentable injury to the natural beauty of
the valley has not been perpetrated, and most of
the mischief has been done within the past few
years. Every year there are more ugly and
obtrusive boat-houses, more blazing advertise-
ments, more squalid-looking sheds and factories,
more execrable iron bridges, more vulgar ' villas.'
Year after year 'improvements' keep nibbling
away some of the most delightful characteristics
of the river, and nobody has any adequate power
to interfere.

The Thames Conservancy is the only body
having any authority on the river; but it is no
part of the conservators' business to look after
aesthetic matters ; and even if it were their recog-
nized business, they are, as a body, not the men to
do it. The thirty or forty members are business
men, the greater part of them at any rate, of the
most ' practical ' and utilitarian type. They can-
not be expected to see with the eye of the land-
scape artist, or to estimate the value of what
for the majority of them probably has no exis-
tence.

Of course a board of business men for the busi-
ness management of the river is indispensable;

but what seems to be required is something of the
kind that has been suggested by Sir W. B. Rich-
mond, R. A., for the advising of the London County
Council upon all proposals involving questions of
artistic knowledge and taste. He would set up a
Committee of Reference, consisting of recognized
authorities, whose function it should be to consider
all schemes for public improvements or alterations
from the artistic point of view. That is precisely
what is wanted for the guidance and advising of
the Thames Conservancy.

But it is obvious that it would be of no use to
set up a committee of advice unless the Con-
servators were empowered to act upon the advice,
and some legislation would be necessary. When
recently there seemed a possibility of the Govern-
ment carrying a ' Port of London Bill ' the Thames
Preservation League presented a memorial asking
that something should be done in this direction
by the insertion of clauses empowering the river
authority to carry out the recommendations of a
Select Committee of the House of Commons
which in 1884 strongly urged the desirability of
giving power to purchase portions of the river
bank where necessary for the public enjoyment
and the preservation of the natural beauty of the
Thames.

When, some years ago, the River Charles at
Boston seemed to be in similar peril of ruin, the
Bostonians resolved that it should not be, and
they bought out all rights in the river and its
banks and have preserved and developed it as a
delightful ' water-park.' We poor Britons cannot
afford to buy our Thames. Such heroic remedies
are not for us ; but we might at any rate set up an
authority with the competency and the legal power
to prevent the destruction of that natural beauty

247

Letters to the Editors

which will become more and more precious to our
people just in proportion as they become educated
and refined, and which is in itself a means of
education and refinement beyond all price.

G. F. Millin.

HARRINGTON HOUSE, CRAIG'S COURT

Gentlemen,

I have just seen with alarm that Harring-
ton House — the beautiful old town house of the
Harringtons — is to be sold by auction in less than
a month.

Though within a stone's throw of Trafalgar
Square it is so hidden that few who have not
visited Craig's Court even know of its existence.

Unless prompt action is taken I have no doubt
that this fine eighteenth-century house will be
swallowed up by one of the monster hotels in
Northumberland Avenue.

The old-world garden, which once overlooked
the river, has already been shorn of its glorie9 —
one big tree alone remaining.

In a recent article on London architecture Mr.
Street, after speaking of our old inns, asks ' are
we going to let our old houses suffer the same
fate ? ' It would be difficult to find one more
worthy of preservation than this.

Julian Sampson.

*„* We trust that this appeal will not be in vain. The
opportunity is one for a wealthy lover of art to show his public
spirit in default of the legislation so much needed to prevent the
destruction of ancient buildings.

SH BIBLIOGRAPHY J9*

MINIATURES

Miniatures. By Dudley Heath. Methuen.
25s. net.

We have read this book with genuine pleasure.
It is not without faults, but the faults are for the
most part trivial, and are far more than counter-
balanced by conspicuous merits, which make it
deserve a place both on the collector's bookshelf
beside his Propert, and also in the studio of every
living miniature painter.

The defects of the book are due chiefly to the im-
possibility of fully covering a wide and cosmo-
politan area, and to a certain technical inexperi-
ence which has passed misprints such as ' Elector
Galatine,' not to mention slips in figures, and
omissions in the index. We doubt if the latest
authorities on French illumination will think that
Mr. Heath has done justice to Pol de Limbourg,
or if Professor Giles would consider the treat-
ment of Chinese art to be quite adequate. Nor is
it possible always to agree with the author when
writing upon the more familiar and restricted
field of English portrait miniatures. Mr. Heath,
for example, appreciates the greatness of Holbein,
but he does not venture to separate quite sharply
the half-dozen miniatures which must certainly be
his from those which just fall short of that un-
surpassable perfection. The duke of Buccleuch's
version of Holbein's portrait should certainly have
been compared with -that at Hertford House, and
the notice of John Bettes should have mentioned
his picture in the National Gallery. The ques-
tions at issue are troublesome, but for that very
reason we regret that they should not be tackled
more thoroughly when a critic so observant and
independent is brought face to face with them.
A methodical classification and comparison, with
the help if necessary of photographic enlarge-
ments, of the miniatures passing under Holbein's
name might have invaluable results. We think,

248

too, that if the rigorous justice which Mr. Heath
metes out to the weaker work of Hilliard were
also applied to Isaac Oliver, the latter would fare
badly, but these are almost the only cases in which
his critical balance seems at fault.

Thus he appreciates John Hoskins, though in
the illustrations we miss the robust sincerity of
the Windsor Charles I. ; his reverence for the
incomparable Samuel Cooper is all that could be
desired, and he rightly emphasizes the great merits
of Nathaniel Dixon. Thomas Flatman, Lawrence
Crosse, and Bernard Lens are also justly placed.

It is in his criticism of the miniatures of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, how-
ever, that Mr. Heath's taste and frankness
show best. We wish these chapters could
be read and taken to heart by all the adver-
tising tradesmen and feeble young ladies who
during the last ten years have made miniature
painting the handmaid of the photograph and the
fashion plate. Judged by their works five-sixths
of our living miniaturists are unlikely to come
across any good book on the subject, and if they
do so are too ill equipped to make use of it. Yet
if these artists combine to degrade their art, how
can the silly society women who patronize them
be taught to know better ? We rejoice to hear
that some attempt is being made by the Society
of Miniature Painters towards a more serious
standard of work, as much as we do to see that
one miniature painter at least understands that
Holbein and Cooper are the classical models to
whom the miniaturist of the future must refer.
Mr. Heath's analysis of the brilliant Cosway
and his overrated satellites Engleheart and the
Plimers is an excellent piece of criticism, indeed
a little more praise for Edridge and the omission
of two or three of the specimens of modern work
are the only improvements we would wish to
suggest in this large section of the book.
Mr. Heath, in short, differs from previous writers

Bibliography

on the subject in possession not only of technical
knowledge, but also that much rarer thing, a sense
of the eternal and absolute difference between art
that is great and art that is pretty.

Most of the illustrations are taken from
examples in famous private collections which
have not been reproduced hitherto. They are not
always so clear as those in Mr. Foster's volumes,
but Holbein is the only artist who really suffers,
and the moderate price of the book forbids any
grumbling. That its comparative cheapness may
succeed in making it popular is what every lover
of the great British tradition of miniature painting

ought to wish.

BIOGRAPHY

Critical Studies and Fragments. By the
late S. Arthur Strong, M.A. With a memoir
by Lord Balcarres, M.P. Duckworth. 16s.
net.
The untimely death of the late librarian to the
House of Lords removed from literary and politi-
cal life a personality that well deserved a perman-
ent memorial ; but that such a memorial in these
days of compromise and advertisement should be
false neither to facts nor to friendship is a singular
piece of good fortune.

The task both of the anonymous editor and of
the writer of the memoir was a delicate one.
Professor Strong's incessant activities encroached
upon many widely different fields of study, yet his
writings seldom took a more elaborate form than
that of a preface or a review. The collection of
these scattered fragments, often published anony-
mously, into a connected whole has been achieved
with great skill, and the result is approximately
complete. It is also remarkable. Any reader of
the book, with special knowledge of one or two of
the many subjects handled so easily by Professor
Strong, may perhaps question whether his intel-
lect was so universally profound as it was wide in
range and brilliant in intuition — a point to which
occasional slips in intricate matters of art criticism
are really less relevant than the shallow review of
M. Maspero's ' Dawn of Civilization ' — but no one
can question his uncommon gifts as a writer.
When quite sure of his ground, Professor Strong
wrote with a wealth of metaphor, an epigrammatic
conciseness, and, in his combative moods, with a
sardonic humour that parvis componere magna
might almost be termed Voltairean.

The memoir also is a model of its kind. The
sternest critic could hardly deny that the analysis
of Professor Strong's character is acute, felicitous,
and impartial. It was doubtless from the Latin
element in his ancestry that he inherited, together
with his insight and logical width of interest, the
political instinct which, though it is often latent
in the Anglo-Saxon, is seldom frankly expressed
by him. In an English man of letters this instinct

must inevitably lead to misconception, to suspicion
perhaps of wire-pulling, even when accompanied
by an outspoken disdain of concealment and com-
promise. No better proof of the attractiveness of
Professor Strong's real nature could be adduced
than the fact that the friends both great and small
whom he openly pressed into his service regarded
their employment as a privilege, and not the least
of their regrets at his early death must be the
feeling that in the government of Orientals for
which he was preparing himself, his ambitions
would have found the scope they had so long
been seeking.

The three fine portraits by M. Legros, Sir
Charles Holroyd, and the Countess Fcodora
Gleichen, are the best possible illustrations for the
memoir. Each artist depicts the striking face
from a different point of view; each shows the
character in a new aspect. Only by seeing the
three together can we reconstruct that complex
personality.

nlederlandisches kijnstler - lexikon auf
Grund archivalischer Fokschungen

BEARBEITET VON Dr. A. VON WURZBACH.

Vierte Lieferung. Wien, 1905.
The fourth number of this excellent dictionary
brings the notices of artists down to David. We
continue our notes. Cleve. M. Hulin (Cat.
critique, p. xxiv) considers him a pupil of John,
son of Justus of Haarlem, the painter of the altar-
piece at Calcar, and thinks that he was already a
master painter when he removed to Antwerp in
1511. Peter De Clievere died in 1546. There is
no reason for doubting the authorship of the trip-
tych from the Meyer and Willett collections
exhibited at Bruges, reproduced in my monograph
on Gerard David (1895). The writing on the back
stating it to be by Cornelia Cnoop is in the same
hand as that on the back of the two miniatures
by her husband in the Bruges Museum. All three
were formerly in the abbey of our Lady of the
Dunes.

Besides Cornelius, who died in 1561, and Caspar,
who died in 1641, there were a number of other
glass painters of the name of Coedyck at Bruges:
Victor, 1545-1557 ; Caspar, 1554-1568; Wolfart,

i555- I 5S4; and Peter > I 557- I 5»4-

Under Coene no mention is made of James
Coene, a painter and illuminator of Bruges who
resided for some time in Paris, and was through
French influence invited to Milan and was engaged
with two assistants to make drawings of the cathe-
dral, but after a short period was dismissed.
Marcellus Cofferman's best work, St. Mary
Magdalene, is now in the possession of Don Pablo
Bosch at Madrid. Another signed picture repre-
senting St. Katherine was sold at Christie's in

1903.

The real name of Cornelius of Lyons is Cornelius
Van der Capelle. He appears to have removed

249

Bibliography

from the Hague to Antwerp and worked under
Quentin Metsys. In 1534 he painted the portrait
of a receiver of town dues — John Obrechts ? — in
his office, weighing a coin ; a woman by his side is
turning over the leaves of a book, and a young
man is coming in with a letter. This picture,
signed Cornelius Van der Capelle, was in 1863 in
the possession of M. J. B. Meyer at Bonn. Hav-
ing embraced Lutheran opinions Cornelius fled to
France, where he was appointed painter to the
Dauphin in 1540. In 1547 he obtained letters of
naturalization, was named painter to the King,
and settled in Lyons. In the collection of Baron
Oppenheim at Cologne is a painting of a receiver
of taxes in his office, attributed to Quentin Metsys,
but really by Cornelius, for on the leaf of the re-
ceiver's open ledger is this entry in capital
letters: — le roy doict a/maistre corneille/

DE LA CHAPELLE SON / PAINCTRE SVR LA /
GABELLE DV SEL/LA SOMME DE/DEVX MILLE

In 1548 Cornelius drew the

portraits of Queen Katherine and the lords and
ladies of her court who accompanied her to Lyons.
He was reconciled to the Church on December 2,
1569, and continued to work at Lyons until his
death in 1574-5. He left a son of the same name
and a daughter ; the latter, according to Antoine
Du Verdier, painted divinement bien (Notes and
Queries, 3 S., vi, 374; Revue de VArt Chretien,
4 S., x, 120; N. Rondot, ' Les Protestants a
Lyon au dix-septieme siecle,' p. 13). As to
Albert Cornelis, the words et chevalier are an
absurd addition to the text of the guild register.
Peter Coustain was painter to the Dukes Philip
and Charles from 1453 to 1481 ; in 1461 he poly-
chromed two statues of St. Philip and St. Elisa-
beth of Thuringia. In 1467 he painted two panels,
one with Christ on the Cross with the Blessed
Virgin and St. John, and the other with the Blessed
Virgin and Child, for which he was paid 40s. ;
these were placed at the head and foot of the
catafalque at Duke Philip's funeral.

Crabbe's best work, a fine shrine of silver-gilt
adorned with statuettes and enamelled escucheons,
is in the church of St. Basil at Bruges. In this
shrine the relic of the Holy Blood is carried at
the annual procession ; it was completed in April
1617.

The saints on the shutters of the triptych at
Liverpool, attributed to Daret, are the patrons,
not of St. John's Hospital, but of St. Julian's
Hospice at Bruges. W. H. J. W.

John N. Rhodes. A Yorkshire Painter, 1809-
1842. By William H. Thorp. R. Jackson,
Leeds.
The subject of this memoir is but little known
outside his native city, and his work, though some-
times skilful and indicative of talent, is unequal
in quality. His more able pictures look like
rather weak imitations of the rustic trifles of

William Collins. His painting can never occupy
a very important place in the English school, and
although the younger Rhodes died at the early
age of thirty-three, there does not seem to be
much reason for thinking that his art was likely
to have developed much further than it had done
before that time. Nevertheless, Mr. Thorp's
book is of considerable interest, not only because
it is pleasantly written, but because it is a valu-
able contribution to the history of art in Leeds.
Until we have a good many more such local
histories our knowledge of the ramifications of
English painting will be far from complete, and
we wish that some enthusiastic student in such a
place as Bath or Ipswich would follow the good
example which Mr. Thorp has set.

BOOKS FOR COLLECTORS

Scottish Pewter-ware and Pewterers. By
L. Ingleby Wood. Edinburgh : George A.
Morton. London : Simpkin, Marshall & Co.
15s. net.

By keeping himself strictly within the limits of
his subject Mr. Ingleby Wood has produced an
excellent account of pewter-making in Scotland.
We have no dissertations on Chinese alloys, on the
Flemish metal-worker's art, or on the aesthetic
value of pewter set upon old oak dressers, but the
history of the Scottish pewterers and their art is
set out for us simply and in good detail.

The use of pewter was in its day a luxury,
and luxuries came laggard toward Scotland, the
London pewterers being established for a century
and a half before their Scottish brethren began
work.

Old Scottish pewter is national in its simplicity,
the Pirley Pig, a money-box in which the council
of Dundee collected fines from absent members,
being remarkable for its ornament. This curious
piece, saved from a heap of old metal in 1839,
makes perhaps the most interesting of Mr. Wood's
many illustrations. It is a covered bowl, six inches
across, with engraved decorations, strapwork, and
rosettes, with three shields of arms, and a fourth
shield with the initials of baillies of Dundee. But
for the most part the illustrations show pewter-
ware severely free from all ornament. The
national piece is certainly the ' tappit hen,' a tall
pewter measure of three English pints, with a
handle and, as a rule, a knopped cover. The
quaigh, a shallow drinking cup, with two plain
ears, is very rarely found in pewter, although
Mr. Wood gives two examples. The mere
collector, careless of aught but filling divisions in
a show-case, may occupy himself in Scotland with
the Communion tokens which are still found in use
in remote places, strange little pewter tickets
bearing the initials or badge of the parish, without
production of which catechised members of the
reformed kirk might not present themselves at the

250

Bibliography

Communion table. Communion cups, flagons, and
broad dishes make a great figure amongst the
pewter pieces of a country in which silver was rare.
Mr. Wood, besides describing in detail the most
characteristic examples of Scottish pewter ware,
catalogues pieces in the national museums and in
the episcopal churches. He gives lists of free
pewterers and apprentice pewterers and describes
their ' touches.' Town by town he records the
history of the incorporated hammermen, amongst
whom the pewterers are found, and here he adds
manj' notes of value to the antiquary as to the
collector. As his work ends with a carefully made
index it should long remain a text-book as useful
as it is unpretentiously learned. O. B.

The Preservation of Antiquities. By Dr.
Friedrich Rathgen, translated by George A.
Auden, M.A., M.D., and Harold A. Auden,
M.Sc, W.Sc. Cambridge University Press.
4s. 6d. net.
This book should be as invaluable to those who
possess curiosities and antiquities as Professor
Church's well-known hand-book on the chemistry
of painting is to artists. The book is modestly
described as a hand-book for curators, but it is one
which ought to be in the hands of every collector
who sets the smallest value upon his possessions.
Although the causes of decay are dealt with from
a chemical point of view, the methods of preserva-
tion are treated from a thoroughly practical
standpoint, so that those who have no knowledge
of the problems of chemistry involved can use the
volume with perfect safety. The destruction of
antique marbles and of plaster casts by the rusting
of the irons inserted to support them, a very
common cause of trouble, ought, perhaps, to have
been discussed.

The Brooches of Many Nations. By Harriet
A. Heaton. Edited by J. Potter Briscoe,
F.R.H.S. With 78 illustrations by the
Authoress. London : Simpkin, Marshall,
Hamilton, Kent & Co. 6s. net.
The story of the development of the brooch, its
form and ornament, might well form the subject
of a useful monograph for the use of the artist or
antiquary, but Miss Heaton's book seems to us
unnecessary. Its archaeology is at second hand, and
uncritical at that, and its literary style takes the
form of that enthusiasm which becomes tiresome
when expressed by the unskilled pen. Such an
opening as ' In the brave old days, when men and
women of spirit sought vent for their energy in
martial deeds ; when men detested a blank in
their swords [whatever that may mean] as much
as a blank in their lives,' does not call us
encouragingly to the study of a chapter upon
Scandinavian fibulas, a thin chapter put together, as
it appears, from easily accessible sources. The
seventy-eight illustrations, line-blocks from pen
drawings, follow the lines of their subjects with

care and accuracy ; but seeing the press of books
which come about us, we cannot discover here in
text or illustration Miss Heaton's excuse for
adding another quarto to the crowd. O. B.

CATALOGUES

Catalog of the Gardiner Greene Hub-
bard Collection of Engravings Pre-
sented to the Library of Congress by
Mrs. G. G. H. Compiled by Arthur Jeffrey
Parsons. Washington : Government Printing
Office, 1905.
The Division of Prints in the Library of Con-
gress, which before 1898 possessed little but
American engravings coming to it largely under
the copyright law, is to be congratulated on the
gift of a collection which, within its 2,707 num-
bers (including 17 drawings), is as fairly represen-
tative as it well might be. Its value in a public
institution is even enhanced by the fact that a
very considerable number of second and third
rate engravers are represented, so that it will form
a solid nucleus in view of further additions for
which the gift in some way provides.

To judge from the catalogue before us, the col-
lector's artistic interest often yielded to the his-
torical, and the portraits, to which there is a
useful index, are a distinct feature, those of
Frederick the Great and Napoleon alone amount-
ing to some four hundred. Though the masters
of line — notably Diirer — are better represented,
there is a sound selection, in almost every school,
of original etchings, ranging from Rembrandt to
Zorn. Possibly secondary considerations may
account for the somewhat over-abundant mass of
line and mezzotint reproductions of paintings in
themselves of little artistic value. In this latter
respect the catalogue shows a praiseworthy clear-
ness in the method by which the master after
whom the engraver worked is indicated in promi-
nent position and different type. As a book of
reference the alphabetical order which is followed
has its advantages, but the historical division, which
would of course have made the second index of
masters arranged according to schools superfluous,
would on the whole have been more helpful to
the student. It is pleasing to find that the some-
what full references given to the various catalogues
— as far as we have been able to test them — are
almost invariably correct. Unfortunately a con-
siderable number of authorities have been omitted
— one might instance Parthey's Hollar, Thau-
sing's Diirer, Wibiral's Vandyck ' Iconography,'
Kristeller's Mantegna, Seidlitz's Rembrandt. Re-
ference to the latter reminds us of the loose way
in which impressions of Rembrandt etchings are
described, e.g., a vague ' tenth state ' suffices for
the description of the ' Rembrandt drawing at a
window.' It is evident, though not stated, that
Rovinski is taken as the authority, but in this as
in certain other like cases, Rovinski's division is

251

Bibliography

more than questionable. Among the omissions,
the fact that Immerzeel has not been consulted
in the more modern supplement (though even this
is now some forty years old) of Kramm would
account for the looseness of speaking of Cornelis
van Dalen as though there were not two engravers
of the name. That the catalogue does not aim at
being critical may be instanced by the fact that the
aquatint portrait of Cromwell by ' Jan van de
Velde II,' which is thus accepted in its entirety as
more than half a century prior to Le Prince, is
passed without notice. Moreover, consultation of
modern critical literature would hardly have left
' Dirk van Star ' without a name. General lack
of measurements and of signatures, and occasional
information such as 'with the mark of an unknown
collector,' ' state not described ' (without descrip-
tion) are tantalizing, considering the fact that so
many students are denied the opportunity of con-
sulting the collection at first hand.

There are some well chosen and excellent re-
productions in collotype. It passed the compiler's
notice, however, that one of these, a small ' Pre-
sentation of the Virgin ' (described as ' Anon.
Italian sixteenth century '), is merely a reduced
copy of a woodcut by Altdorfer. A. M. H.

Catalogue of the Collection of English
Porcelain in the Department of British
and Medieval Antiquities and Ethno-
graphy of the British Museum. By R.
L. Hobson, B.A., assistant in the department.
London : printed by order of the Trustees,
1905. 4to. pp. xxvi, 161 ; with xxxviii pi.
(some col.) and 104 text illustrations. £1 10s.
A companion volume to the ' Catalogue of English
Pottery and Earthenware,' published two years
ago, has just been issued by the Trustees of the
British Museum. The care of preparing an
exhaustive Guide-book to the small but most select
collection of English Porcelain exhibited in the
Ceramic room, has been entrusted to the as-
sistant curator, Mr. R. L. Hobson. Much credit
is to be given to the writer for the accuracy and
completeness displayed in the descriptive part of
the work ; one cannot say, however, that he has
been equally successful in his treatment of the
historical notices. One might have expected that
a book, elaborated under the exceptional conditions
in which the compiler was placed by his position,
would contain a few hitherto unpublished state-
ments, or at least give us some ingenious interpre-
tation of the so far misunderstood old documents
through which more than one standing problem
might receive a plausible solution. The reader
cannot help feeling disappointed in that respect.
He has to be satisfied with a highly cautious and
somewhat diffuse reiteration of the commonplace
information that has so often done duty in books
of the same order.

We hear that the MS. passed through the

252

hands of several conscientious revisers before it
received the Imprimatur. Revision could, doubt-
less, do much in the way of modifying or excising
all controvertible matter, but it could not impart
to this bulky catalogue anything more than a stern
character of official respectability.

MISCELLANEOUS

Apollon-Gavlgruppen fra Zeustemplet I

OLYMPIA, ET FORSLAG TIL NOGLE AENDRIN-
GEN I OPSTILLINGEN AF FIGURERNE. Af

N. K. Skovgaard. (With a translation in
German.) Kopenhagen, 1905. London :
Williams and Norgate. 7s. 6d. net.
Mr. Skovgaard in this monograph attempts a
rearrangement of the Western pediment of the
Temple of Zeus at Olympia on artistic rather
than archaeological lines. In the main he accepts
the arrangement of Professor Treu, which has been
hitherto generally adopted, but with some im-
portant variations which may be seen at a glance
by comparing the two arrangements on the plate.
The principle he adopts is to follow the ' Linien-
wirkung,' and to see how the principal lines of the
composition strike or should strike the eye. The
chief result obtained on this system is that the
two groups of a centaur carrying off a woman on
each side of the central figure are now reversed.
Artistically, however, this does not seem to be an
improvement, as it will be seen to break into the
ascending lines of the pediment space, a principle
always observed by the Greeks in their temple-
sculptures.

In estimating the sculptures as a whole the
writer supports Treu's contention that they have
been too much under-estimated ; but though he is
perhaps right in pointing this out, few will go so
far as to urge with him their superiority in com-
position to the pediments of the Parthenon. His
final conclusion is that both the pediments were
probably the work of one artist whom he does
not venture to name ; obvious defects of execution
are to be accounted for by supposing that they
are due to assistants of inferior calibre.

H. B. W.
Dream Come True. By Laurence Binyon,
with woodcut by the author and decorations
by Lucien Pissarro, The Brook, Hammer-
smith. 15s. net.
We have before called attention to the charming
productions of Mr. Pissarro's Eragny Press, in
which the art of original wood engraving survives
in company with typography of thegreatest beauty;
so we can give no higher praise to the little book
before us than that it is entirely worthy of its
author and publisher. Those who have watched
the growth of Mr. Binyon's genius will know that
the lofty poet of the ' Death of Adam ' is also the
possessor of a passionate intimate lyrical gift. His
talent as a draughtsman has long been recognized

Bibliography

by his personal friends, and the justice of that
recognition has never been more conclusively
proved than by the little woodcut which serves as
a frontispiece to the present volume. In spite of
the small scale and bold cutting, the print has an
airiness and serenity which are, alas, too rare.
Indication of Houses of Historical Interest
in London. Parts I, II, III. Published for
the L.C.C. by P. S. King and Son. One
penny each.
On the recommendation of its Historical Records
and Buildings Committee, the London County
Council three years ago took over the work for-
merly undertaken by the Society of Arts of indi-
cating by memorial tablets the residences of
celebrated men and women in London. These
interesting and useful records of the work of the
Committee up to the present give the reasons in
each case why the houses have been selected. The
selection often involves a considerable amount of
historical and topographical research, and changes
in numbers, etc., add to the difficulties. There is
little to be said about a work so obviously deserving
unqualified commendation.
Norway. By Nico Jungman. Text by Beatrix

Jungman. A. & C. Black. 20s. net.
A gossiping chronicle of very small beer in the
manner of the book on Holland by the same
author and artist, which we noticed a few months
ago. Such merit as Mr. Jungman's work once
possessed seems to have been lost through haste
and carelessness, and very few of the pictures in
this book are worth the pains spent upon them by
the publishers.

Nuremberg. Painted by Arthur G. Bell; de-
scribed by Mrs. Arthur G. Bell. Black.
7s. 6d. net.
A pleasantly-written book about Nuremberg of
the dark ages, with its dungeons and torture -
chambers; Nuremberg of the Renaissance, with
its artists and craftsmen; and Nuremberg of to-
day, with its factories and beer-gardens. Every
chapter tells a legend or two, and every illustra-
tion is devoted to some relic of mediaeval or Re-
naissance architecture. We have seen better
specimens of colour-printing. The writer has no
very high standard of accuracy, especially _ in
regard to names ; and we wonder why, in writing
of a town so typically Teutonic, she should persist
in calling the Lorenzkirche ' San Lorenzo.'
Rome. Painted by Alberto Pisa. Text by M. A.
R. Tuker and Hope Malleson. A. and C.
Black. 20s. net.
This is one of the best volumes of Messrs. Black's
pretty series which we have seen. The opening
chapters perhaps attempt rather too much, and so
leave only a confused impression upon the reader's
mind ; but the rest of the book is a thoroughly
good piece of work, not very profound perhaps, but
written with far more local knowledge and insight

than is commonly found in books of the kind.
The peculiarities of the Roman character in its
attitude towards religion and life are admirably
indicated, and the book will thus be not only a
pleasant souvenir for those who already know
Rome, but should also be of considerable use to
those who wish to know it. The illustrations
show no special sense of design or colour, but
have the merit of being straightforward and un-
affected.

Practical Hints on Painting 'Composition'
Landscape and Etching. By Henry F. W.
Ganz. Gibbings. 2s. 6d. net.
A series of notes, chiefly technical in character,
rather incoherently arranged, and illustrated by
the author's sketches. The critical statements
are frequently loose, but the book may give some
practical hints to learners if they do not expect
too much.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Apollon-Gaulgruppen. By N. K. Skovgaard. Williams and
Norgate. 7s. 6d. net.

Ex Libris. By A. de Riquer. Williams and Norgate.

The Master of Game. Edited by W. A. Baillie-Grohman.
Ballantyne, Hanson and Co. £6 6s.

Siena. By Casmir von Chledowski. Berlin : Bruno Cassirer.

The Langham Series of Art Monographs— Italian Archi-
tecture. By J. Wood Brown, M. A. A. Siegle. 1s.6d.net.

The Langham Series of Art Monographs— Rome. By
Albert Zacher. A. Siegle. is. 6d. net.

English Table Glass. By Percy Bate. George Newnes,
Ltd. 7s. 6d. net.

Practical Hints on Painting 'Composition ' Landscape and
Etching. By Henry F. W. Ganz. Gibbings & Co.
2s. 6d. net.

Grammar of Greek Art. By Percy Gardner, Litt.D. Mac-
millan and Co. 7s. 6d. net.

The Gardiner Greene Hdbbard Collection of Engravings.
Arthur J. Parsons. Washington: Government Printing
Office.

An Introduction to the History of Chinese Pictorial
Art. By Herbert A. Giles, M.A., LL.D. Kelby and
Walsh, Ltd., Shanghai.

Robert Adam. By Percy Fitzgerald, M.A., F.S.A. T. Fisher
Unwin. ios. 6d. net.

The Preservation of Antiquities. Translated by George
A. Auden and Harold A. Auden from the German of
Dr. Friedrich Rathgen. University Press, Cambridge.
4s. 6d. net.

The Royal Academy Exhibitors, 1769-1904. Vol. I. Abbayne
to Carrington. By Algernon Graves, F.S.A. George
Bell and Sons, and Henry Graves and Co., Ltd. £2 2s. net.

Dream Come True. By Laurence Binyon. With woodcut by
author, and decoration by Lucien Pissarro, The Brook,
Hammersmith. 15s. net.

Old Masters and New. By Kenyon Cox. Fox Duffield and
Co., New York. 1 dollar 50 cents.

MAGAZINES, RECEIVED
Le Correspondant, Paris. La Rassegna Nazionale, Florence.
Die Graphischen Kiinste, Vienna. The Kokka, Tokyo.
Die Kunst, Munich. The Craftsman, Syracuse, New
York. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Paris. La Chronique des
Arts et de la Curiosity, Paris. Onze Kunst, Amsterdam.
Sztuka, Wydawca. La Revue de l'Art, Paris. The Nine-
teenth Century and After. The Monthly Review. The
Fortnightly Review. The National Review. The Gentle-
man's Magazine. The Contemporary Review. The Rapid
Review. The Review of Reviews. The Anglo-Russian.

CATALOGUES
Vente D'Estampes Anciennes et de Dessins. MM. Frederik
Muller and Co., Amsterdam.

253

RECENT ART PUBLICATIONS

ART HISTORY

Fodcher (A.). L'Art Greco-Bouddhique du Gandhara. fetude
sur les origines de l'influence classique dans l'art boud-
dhique de l'Inde et de l'Extreme-Orient, Vol.1. (11x7)
Paris (Leroux). Complete in two vols., many illustrations.

Lapauze (H.). Melanges sur l'Art Francais. (8x5) Paris
(Hachette), 5 fr. Reprinted essays upon La Tour, Ingres,
Carries, the French Academy at Rome, ' Le droit
d'entree dans les M usees,' etc.

ANTIQUITIES

Bceswillwald (E.), Cagnat (R.), and Ballu (A.). Timgad,
une cite 1 africaine sous l'empire romain. (14x11) Paris
(Leroux). Completion of the eight parts published since
1892. 44 plates, plans, etc.

Hall (R. N.). Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia: an
account of two years' examination work in 1902-4. (9 x 6)
London (Methuen), 21s. net. Illustrated.

Beltramelli (A.). Da Commachio ad Argenta : le lagune e
le bocche del Po. (11x7) Bergamo (Istituto d'Arti
grafiche), 4 1. ' Italia Artistica ' ; 134 illustrations.

Alinari (V.). F-glises et couvents de Florence. (7 x 5) Flor-
ence (Alinari), 5 fr. Illustrated. An illustrated pocket-
guide of 287 pp.

Gallenga Stuart (R. A.). Perugia. (11x7) Bergamo
(Istituto d'Arti grafiche), 4 1. ' Italia Artistica ' ; 169 illus-
trations.

Wall (J. C). Shrines of British saints. (9x5) London
(Methuen's Antiquary's Books). Illustrated.

BIOGRAPHICAL WORKS AND MONOGRAPHS

Sparrow (W. S.). Women Painters of the World. From the
time of Caterina Vigri, 1413-63, to Rosa Bonheur and the
present day. (12x8) London (Hodder and Stoughton),
7s. 6d. net.

Clement (C. E.). Women Painters of the World. From the
Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century a.d. (8 x 5)
Boston (Houghton, Mifflin), $2.50. 32 plates.

Hodgson (J. H.) and Eaton (F. A.). The Royal Academy and
its Members, 1768-1830. (9 x 6) London (Murray), 21s. net.
10 plates.

Fitzgerald (P.). Robert Adam, artist and architect ; his
works and his system. (11x8) London; Illustrated.

Bastelaer (R. van). Peter Bruegel l'ancien, son oeuvre et son
temps, suivie d'un catalogue raisonne de son ceuvre dessine
et grave ; et d'un catalogue raisonne de son oeuvre peint par
G. H. de Loo. (13 x 10) Bruxelles (Van Oest). Pt. 1,

24 pp. 18 plates in heliogravure and phototype.
Robaut (A.). L'oeuvre de Corot. Catalogue raisonne et

illustre\ precede' de l'histoire de Corot et de ses oeuvres,
par E. Moreau-Nelaton. Vols. I— II. (15x11) Paris
(Floury) ; Vol. I. contains the biography ; Vol. II. the cata-
logue, with a reproduction of each item ; to be completed in
4 vols., each 400 fr.

Pottier (E ). Douris et les Peintres de Vases Grecs. (9x6)
Paris (Laurens), 2 fr. 50. ' Les Grands Artistes.' 24 illus-
trations.

Laban (F.). Heinrich Friedrich Fiiger der Portratminiaturist.
(Jahrbuch der Kgl. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xxvi,
pp. 1-27.) With many reproductions of miniatures and
studies, some in colour.

Eabriczy (C. von). Giuliano da Majano in Macerata. (Jahr-
buch der Kgl. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xxvi, 40-46.)
Illustrated.

Van Eeghen (P.) and Van der Kellen (J. P.). Het Werk van
Jan en Casper Luyken. 2 vols. (12 x 8) Amsterdam
(Muller). With 56 reproductions of studies, prints, etc.

Collignon (M.). Lysippe. (9 x 6) Paris (Laurens), 2 fr. 50.
■ Les Grands Artistes.' 24 illustrations.

Jordan (M.). Das Werk Adolf Menzels, 1815-1905. Mit einer
Biographie des Kiinstlers. (12x9) Miinchen (Bruckmann),
ios. Illustrated.

Perrot (G.). Praxitele. (9x6) Paris (Laurens), 2 fr. 50. 'Les
Grands Artistes.' 24 illustrations.

Qcarre-Reybourbon (L.). Arnould de Vuez, peintre lillois,
1644-1720. (10x7). Lille (Lefebvre-Ducrocq) ; 17 plates.

ARCHITECTURE
Puchstein (O.). Fiihrer durch die Ruinen von Baalbek.

(7 x 5) Berlin (Reimer), 2 fr. 40 pp., illustrated.
Baudot (A. de) and Perrault-Dabot (A.). Les cathedrales de

France. Fascicule I. (17 x 13) Paris (Schmid ; Laurens),

25 fr. 25 photogravure plates.

Soil de Moriame (E.-J.). L'Habitation Tournaisienne du
xi e au xvm e siecle. Vol.1. (9x6) Tournai (Casterman).
Forms a vol. of the annales of the Tourna_, ..rcnaeoio 5 i-
cal Society. Illustrated.

PAINTING

Cremer (F. G.). Zur Oelmaltechnik des Alten. (9 x 6) Dussel-
dorf (Voss), 8 m.

Peters (J. P.) and Thiersch (H.). Painted Tombs in the Ne-
cropolis of Marissa (Mareshah). Edited by S. A. Cook.
(11x8) London (Palestine Exploration Fund), 42s. net.
22 plates, some in colour.

Suida (W.). Einige florentinische Maler aus der Zeit des Uber-
gangs vom Duecento ins Trecento : I. Die Madonna Ruccellai.
(Jahrbuch der Kgl. Preussischen Kunstsammlungen, xxvi,
pp. 28-39.) Illustrated.

Suida (W.). Florentinische Maler um die Mitte des xiv. Jahr-
hunderts. (12 x 8) Strassburg (Heitz), 8 m.

Studies upon Orcagna, Nardo di Cione, Giovanni da
Milano, etc., with 35 plates.

Gramm (J.). Spatmittelalterliche Wandgemalde im Konstanzer
Minister. (10 x 6) Strassburg (Heitz), 6 m. 20 plates.

MEDER(J.)and Schonbrunner (J. von). Zeichnungen Albrecht
Diirers in der Albertina zu Wien, in Nachbildungen.
(ig x 14) Berlin (Grote) ; Vol. IV. (plates 448-588) of the
late Dr. Lippmann's publication.

Bruck (R.). Das Skizzenbuch von Albrecht Diirer in der
kbnigl. offentl. Bibliothek zu Dresden. (14 x 10) Strass-
burg (Heitz). 160 phototypes.

Ganz (P.). Handzeichnungen schweizerischer Meister des
xv.-xvm. Jahrhunderts. (15x12) London (Williams and
Norgate). Pt. I., 15 plates; 10 fr.

Heath (D.). Miniatures. (10 x 7) London (Methuen), 25s. net,
43 plates, 1 1 in colour. ' Connoisseur's Library.'

Hawkesbury (Lord). Catalogue of the Portraits, Miniatures,
etc. at Castle Howard and Naworth Castle. (In the Trans-
actions of the East Riding Antiquarian Society, vol. xi,
pp. 35-122). Hull (A. Brown) : with 19 plates.

SCULPTURE

Sturgis (R.). The Appreciation of Sculpture. (10x6) London
(Batsford), 7s. 6d. net. 80 illustrations.

Goldschmidt (A.). Elfenbeinreliefs aus der Zeit Karls des
Grossen. (Jahrbuch der Kgl. Preussischen Kunstsamm-
lungen, xxvi, 47-67.) Illustrated.

MANUSCRIPTS.
Bradley (J. W.). Illuminated Manuscripts. London (Methuen).

2s. 6d. net. Illustrated.
Le Musee des Enluminures. fidite' par Pol de Mont. (17 x 13)

Haarlem (Kleinmann). Part I. of this publication is devoted

to the Berry Hours at Brussels ; reproductions in photo-

tvpe.
Cockerell (S. C). The Book of Hours of Yolande of Flanders,

a manuscript of the fourteenth century in the Library of

H.Y.Thompson. (13x10) London (printed by Whitting-

ham). 7 photogravure plates : 24 pp.
Sarrazin (A.). Histoire de Rouen d'apres les miniatures des

manuscrits. (10 x 7) Rouen (Cagniard). Illustrations.

GOLDSMITHS' WORK
Rosenberg (M.). Aegyptische Einlage in Gold und Silber.

(14x11) Frankfurt am Main (Keller). 16 pp., 26 illustra-
tions.
Dalton (O. M.). Franks Bequest ; The Treasure of the Oxus,

with other objects from Ancient Persia and India, (n x 9)

London (British Museum). 29 phototype plates, and text

illustrations.

MISCELLANEOUS
Museo civico di Torino. Sezione arte antica. Cento tavole

riproducenti circa 700 oggetti. (19 x 13) Torino (Sambuy).

Phototypes (antique to renaissance periods).
Molin (A. de). Histoire documentaire de la manufacture de

Porcelaine de Nyon, 1781-1813. (13 x 10) Lausanne

(Bridel). Illustrations, including 10 coloured plates.
Schmerber (H.). Die Schlange des Paradieses. (12x8)

Strassburg (Heitz), 2 m. 50. ' Zur Kunstgeschichte des

Auslandes.' 3 plates.
Whall (C. W.). Stained Glass Work : A text book for students

and workers in glass. (7 x 5) London (Hogg), 5s. net.

Lethabv's ' Artistic Craft Series.' Illustrated.

254

■/,,//„■ /,,-u, >.„■•■„ ■ ■/' //' •/^/"■- 'H< r//,,,,,,, r.

ENGLISH PRIMITIVES

THE PAINTED CHAMBER AND THE EARLY MASTERS

OF THE WESTMINSTER SCHOOL

^ BY W. R. LETHABY J5T»

► T the far end of the
Great Hall of the Palace
of Westminster, St. Ste-
phen's Chapel, of which
the beautiful undercroft,
although terribly restored,
still exists, jutted out at right angles
towards the river. Beyond St. Stephen's,
and parallel to it on the other side of a
court, stood the famous Great Chamber
of the King, otherwise called the Cham-
ber of St. Edward or the Painted Chamber.
For centuries the title Painted Chamber had
been only a name, when, in the year 1 800,
some of the paintings were found on the
walls behind tapestries which had long
shrouded them. 1

Later they were again covered up with
whitewash and blue paper, until they were
once more brought to light in 18 19, when
further alterations were made to the cham-
ber. The paintings were soon after finally
obliterated, except some on the jambs of
the windows, which were allowed to re-
main in what had become the Court of
Requests. The chamber and its paintings
were wholly destroyed after the fire of
1834. A careful account of them, how-
ever, by John Gage Rokewode, was pub-
lished by the Society of Antiquaries,
together with some coloured engravings
from drawings made in 18 19 by that
master draughtsman, C. A. Stothard. 2

His original drawings are preserved in
the library of the Societv of Antiquaries ;
they are more delicate than the engravings,
and the parts which in the original paint-
ings were of gilt gesso work are repre-
sented by raised and burnished gold.

1 John Carter, writing just before, says "certain markings on
various parts of the walls appear like ornamental compartments,
whose colours are hid by many coats of whitewash," Gent. Mag.,
1819, p. 422. He there describes the tapestries in detail, and
sketches of them are preserved in the Crowle Collection in the
British Museum.

2 Vctusta Monumenta, Vol. VI.

The Burlington Magazine, No. :S. Vol. VII— July 1905.

Amongst the recent acquisitions at the
South Kensington Art Library are several
other coloured drawings from the same
paintings, which were once in the collection
of Wm. Burges.

The finding of this new material for an
account of what was the pre-eminent work
of the painters of the Early English school
is the immediate cause of this study of the
subject. They are described as ' Spoilt
drawings by Mr. Crocker.' Turning to
Rokewode's text I found that Mr. Crocker
was ' Master of the Works ' during the
alterations of 1819, and in a footnote to a
description of one of the engravings a
reference is made to Mr. Crocker's draw-
ings of the same subject in the Douce Col-
lection in the Bodleian Library. Mrs. E. N.
P. Moor was good enough to follow up this
clue for me, and found eighteen highly
finished drawings, and three copies of
long inscriptions, accompanied by a key-
plan and elevations of the walls, showing
the positions which the several paintings
occupied, together with a short MS. ac-
count written 'by Edward Crocker, 1820.'
This collection, which I have now
examined, is preserved in the University
Galleries. The drawings are exquisitely
accurate, and fully coloured and gilded,
the raised gesso work being represented
in relief. They are drawn to a scale of
1 J inches to a foot, and the inscriptions
are half full size. 3

The chamber was raisedabove an under-
croft of Norman work, and its walls were
partly of that time, but it was altered into
elegant early gothic about 1230. I had
written thus, assigning the date from the

3 On the back of one of these is written ' Drawn by the en-
couragement of Sir Gregory Page Tanner, Bart. ... by
Edw. Crocker, junr., Clerk of the Works.' The drawings
resemble Stothard's in many respects. I am allowed to repro-
duce three of the drawings from negatives by the photographer
to the University Galleries, and I must here express my thanks
to Mr. A. Macdonald for much kind interest and assistance.

257

The Painted Chamber at Westminster

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Figs, i and 2. — Elevations of North and South sides of the Painted Chamber showing the position of the paintings copied by Stothard with
reference numbers to the engravings. X and Y additional paintings copied by Crocker. A, B, C inscriptions.

two-light windows, when I found records
that in 123 1-2 Peter de Luton and other
carpenters were to choose and fell timber
at Havering for the King's Great Chamber
at Westminster Palace, and that in 1232—3
Odo the goldsmith (the general keeper
of the Westminster works) was com-
manded to receive William de Ruter and
Hugh de Abbendon, carpenters, to do
the king's work at Westminster. 4 The
chamber was first painted soon after it was
built, for we hear of a ' great history '
painted there as early as 1237. But these
paintings were superseded in the latter half

* Close Rolls, Hen. III.
258

of the century by those we are about to
describe. In 1307 we find the name
camera depicta in use for this chamber at
Westminster. 5

It was of noble size, 80 feet 6 inches
long, 26 feet wide, and 31 feet high, and
its walls, ceiling, fireplace, and the stone-
work of its windows were painted all over
with stories and patterns. A large, accu-
rate plan of the room made by W. Capon in
1799 is preserved in the Crace Collection
at the British Museum. 6 This plan shows
the details of the windows and doors and

' As early as 1233 a ' painted chamber ' at Winchester Castle
is mentioned. « Maps, xi, 47.

The Painted Chamber at Westminster

the spiral staircase at the south-east corner.
Even the black and yellow tiles of the
floor are represented. Two perspective
engravings of the interior accompany
Rokewode's account, and in Carter's
' Details of English Architecture and
Painting' some other particulars, includ-
ing a plan of the wooden ceiling, are
given. This ceiling was boarded all over
like a floor, and on it were set a number
of large, flat, quatrefoil bosses, one of which
I have found, without description, in the
basement of the Soane Museum. At the
east end, towards the river, were two
windows; the north and south sides are
shown in our diagrams amended from
Crocker's drawings 7 (Figs, i and 2). Near
the north-east corner was a door which seems
to have led to the king's oratory, and close
to it on the left was a small quatrefoil
opening which was doubtless placed there
so that the king might readily see the
altar from his bed, which I hope to show
was placed directly in front of the import-
ant picture of the Coronation of Edward
the Confessor, through a corner of which
the opening was pierced, as may be seen
in Stothard's engraving. 8

The four principal chambers in the
palace were the great and little halls and the
king's and queen's chambers. The latter
two were occasionally, like the former,
used for banquets. It is certain that the
king's chamber and the Painted Chamber
are one, but Rokewode does not seem to
assert that it was the king's bed-chamber,
although he implies as much ; there can-
not, however, be a doubt that the bed-
chamber of Henry III. and the Edwards
was the Painted Chamber. 9 Rokewode
shows that the king's oratory was certainly
at its north-east angle, and the oratory is

' Capon's plan is the authority for the door at north-west
corner, and Rokewode's text, p. 14, for the position of the door
in north-east angle, which seems to have communicated with a
stair similar to that at south-east angle.

8 See our Fig. 1. Crocker says ' it is probable both door and
opening were connected with the oratory.' See also Capon's
remarks in Vttusta Monumenta.

* See Rokewode, in V. M., Vol. VI, pp. 9, 10, 13.

more than once spoken of in the documents
as close to, or behind, the king's bed,
'juxta lectum Rs.' — ' retro lectum.' Again,
finally, the opening which we have just
mentioned can be no other than the ' king's
round window ' which is mentioned in an
order of 1236, and which is expressly said
to have been juxta lectum regis in the
king's chamber. 10

To the left was the fireplace, which was
altered in Tudor times, but some records
show that the earlier one had a painting on
the hood above it. Further to the left, in
the same north wall, were three two-
light windows, and in the south wall there
appear to have been four similar windows,
two of which were closed before the
paintings which chiefly concern us were
executed."

Through the rolls of accounts we know
of a series of decorations in the king's
chamber earlier than most of those which
were discovered in 18 19. In 1236 it was
ordered that it should be painted of a good
green colour in the manner of a curtain
and that in the gable over the door should
be written this motto, ' Ke ne dune ke ne
tine ne pret ke desire.' (Qui ne donne ce
qu'il tient, ne prend ce qu'il desire). In
the year following we read of the ' great
history' in the same chamber. Rokewode
gives these references, and in the Close
Rolls for 1243 and 1244 I find additional
orders for two large lions to be painted
face to face, and for the four Evangelists
to be painted, the image of St. John to the
east, St. Matthew to the west, St. Luke to
the south, and St. Mark to the north,
Another mandate ordered that the chamber
should be wainscoted, and the pillars about
the king's bed painted green and gold.

In 1252, Master William, the king's
painter, was employed in repairing the
paintings ; the fireplace was rebuilt in
1259, and Master William and his men
then received 43s. 2d. for painting a

i° V.M., Vol. VI. p. 7. " V.M., Vol. VI. p. 7.

259

The Painted Chamber at Westminster

'Jesse' (tree) on the hood (mantle) above
it, and for repairing and cleaning the
paintings. William's two assistants were
Richard Painter and John de Radinge, who
received 6d. a day for painting the wall on
either side of the chimney. 12 At the south-
east corner of the room, one of the windows
blocked when the second series of paintings
was done was found to have on its jamb a
painted green curtain. 13 Crocker says
this ' was certainly older than any of the
rest,' and it doubtless forms a remnant of
the earlier series.

On 7 February 1262, a serious fire oc-
curred, in which the lesser hall, the cham-
ber, the chapel, etc., were burnt; 14 the
figure paintings, which we know by copies,
therefore belong to the time immediately
following.

There were two commands relating to
paintings issued in 1263, which Rokewode
by error puts in inverse order, post-dating
the earlier by a year. The first is dated
17 September, 1263. 15 In it, William of
Gloucester, citizen of London, is ordered
to provide gold for the completion of some
paintings in the king's chamber by the
Feast of St. Edward, that is, October 13,
and the finishing required cannot have
demanded much work. On November 10
of the same year l6 there was an order for
the issue of money for paintings in the
king's chamber and the chapel behind the
king's bed, to be finished by Christmas.
Other mandates of 1265 and 1267 refer to
materials for making and completing
paintings in the chamber, and in three
issued during the latter year the artist en-
gaged on the work is named, ' Master
Walter, our painter.' Further payments
were made for gold and colours for the
pictures in the years 1268-69-70-71. All
these notices are cited by Rokewode.

»s Issue Rolls, 43 Hen. III.
" See V.M., Vol. vi, PI. xx, Fig. 22.

11 I find this definitely stated in Riley's ' Chronicles of the
Mayors and Sheriffs,' p. 54.

15 Close Roll, 48 Hen. Ill, membrane 2.

16 Close Roll, 48 Hen. Ill, membrane 10.

260

Eastlake brought to notice further accounts
for the years 1 274-7 (second to fifth year,
Edward I.) for colours, oil,varnish, and gold.
Another item in the last of these years was
for a load of charcoal for drying the paint-
ings in the king's chamber, 3s. 8d. — a con-
siderable sum, equivalent to, say £3 10s.

This great drying, we may well suppose,
marks the completion of the work, which
may safely be dated as executed in sections
during the fifteen years from 1262 to
1277. A considerable political event was
consummated in the chamber in 1 278, and
this also may be held to be contributory
evidence as to its then being completed.
Alexander, 'late king of Scotland,' came to
the king in the chamber at Westminster,
and took the oath, ' I, Alexander, king of
Scotland, become the liege-man of Sir
Edward, king of England, against all
men,' etc. (Close Roll, 6 Ed.^ I.) We
may safely assign the inception and inspira-
tion of the paintings to the art-loving king,
Henry III., who died 1 272. One account
in 1256 describes how the king 'ordained'
a painting for the palace in consultation
with Master William, his painter.

When we again hear of the paintings,
in 1288 and 1292-4, Master Walter, King
Edward's painter, was engaged ' circa
emendacionem pictorie in magna camera
regis.' In the account of 1294, Thomas,
son of the master, appears working as one
of the nine men employed. In 1307, the
king's painter, ' Master Thomas de West-
minster, son of Walter, before mentioned,' 17
and others, were engaged in amending
divers defects in the ' Camera Depicta,' in
the ceiling, walls, and windows, and also on
paintings in the ' Camera Marculfy ' and
other chambers, and on the ship in which
the king (Edward II.) crossed to France
for his wedding.

In 1322, while the chamber was still
in its brilliant perfection, it was visited by
two travelling friars, Simon, and Hugh the

'< G. Rokewode, pp. n and 12.

DESTROYED FIGURES OF VIRTUES AND VICES; FRJM ENGRAVINGS AFTER DRAWINGS BY STOTHAKD, PUBLISHED BY THE
SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES

THE PAINTED CHAMBER, WEST-
MINSTER, PLATE I

The Painted Chamber at Westminster

illuminator, who have left a description of
what they saw. ' Near the monastery stands
the most famous royal palace of England,
in which is the celebrated chamber, on the
walls of which all the warlike pictures of
the whole Bible are painted with ineffable
skill, and explained and completed by a
regular series of texts beautifully written in
French, to the great admiration of the
beholder.'

annocjjuf

W baratlef
garmef

Fio. 3. — Specimen of the inscriptions, about quarter full size.

These inscriptions, of which, as said
above, fragments are preserved at Oxford,
were in an admirable form of black letter, of
which Fig. 3 is a specimen, being a part
of one of the clearest fragments : —

14 rets anttocbus entca en cgtptc a grant est . . .
mut oe batatles en gtre le re tbolome oe cgtpte . . .
citees garntes & mist tut ala spee e a gref ....

They may be the work of William the
Scribe, whose name appears in the accounts
for 1292.

When the chamber was explored evi-
dence even of the destroyed thirteenth
century fireplace was discovered. It ap-
pears that at the time when it was replaced
by the Tudor one, some new windows were
also cut through the upper part of the walls
and the stones of the original fireplace were
taken to block up some of the early two-
light windows. Stothard says that a quan-
tity of wrought stone, painted on the

surface, had been used for this purpose.
' I selected from them,' he says, ' a com-
plete series of subjects representing the em-
ployments of the twelve months of the
year, which, I am inclined to believe, orna-
mented the frieze of the original chimney-
piece. The form and the arrangement of
the stones confirm me in this conjecture ;
the whole of these subjects might have been
put together and perfectly restored.' 18

The labours of the twelve months, com-
prising mowing, reaping, gathering fruits,
etc., figured in a series of panels, are well
known to us in the calendars of MSS. and
other sources. In this relation I cannot
help recalling here the subject which in
1 240 Henry ordered to be painted over the
fireplace of the queen's chamber, 'A figure
of Winter,which by its sad countenance and
miserable distortion of body may be likened
to winter itself.' I9

On the walls of our chamber the paint-
ings were arranged in a succession of bands
(see Figs. 1 and 2), and the inscriptions
were in narrower bands, about 1 1 inches
wide, between them. These spaces, thus
fretted over in black on white, must have
been of great value in setting off the bril-
liantly illuminated paintings. A similar
system obtained in St. Stephen's Chapel, as
may be seen on the fragments preserved in
the British Museum. There were six
bands of paintings in all, which increased
in width upwards in order. Beneath them
the dado was painted like a green curtain.
Capon, in 1799, found the remains of this
on the west wall: 'The fringe on the bottom
well painted and the folding well under-
stood.' 20 The lowest band contained the
story of Joab, Abner, and David ; the next,
events from the second book of the Macca-
bees, one scene being inscribed ' La Mere
and vii filtz.' In the third band were the
stories of Abimelech and Jotham, with
their names written over their heads, of

18 V M. Vol. VI. page 2. 13 Ibid, page 20.

'» Ibid. Vol. V.

253

The Painted Chamber at Westminster

Hezekiah'and Isaiah, of the Assyrians (called
Arabians), of the captivity of Jehoiachin,
and of the destruction of the Temple (' le
Temple de Jerl'm'). The fourth band had
the stories of Elijah and Elisha. The fifth
band had the acts of Judas Maccabeus, and
the sixth the story of Antiochus. 21

On the jambs of the windows were large
figures of the Virtues, and in one place of
Edward the Confessor and the Pilgrim.
Stothard's engravings Figs, i, 3, 14, and
16 are not represented amongst Crocker's
drawings, and the latter gives two large

figures not en-
graved. The two
series agree remark-
ably, although there
are slight variations,
Crocker's being, on
the whole, the fuller.
Of most of the com-
positions which
have been engraved
I will not give any
description. The
two drawings not
represented by en-
gravings are the
upper part of one of
the Virtues, and a
knight under a ca-
nopy, which latter
came from a space
between the fire-
place and the Coro-
nation group. It
was a fine figure
over 5 feet high, clad in mail and hold-
ing a shield and spear, and probably re-
presented some military saint like St.
Eustace, guarding the king's bed, by
which it stood 22 (Fig. 4). Crocker's
drawing of the Virtue is lettered VERITE.
She had a sword upraised in her right hand

al Crocker gives the passages from the Bible referred to in the
pictures.

» « At Winchester Castle in 1251 the king ordered ' the guards
of the bed of Solomon ' to be painted by his bed. St. Eustace
was figured as a knight in St. Stephen's chapel.

264

FIG. 4. — From Crocker's drawing
of painting at Y.

and a golden target charged with a red
cross in the other. Her robe was red and
her 'kerchief a delicate blue. The figure
of Falsehood, on which she must have been
trampling, had been destroyed, and what
remained of the Virtue herself was much
injured. It is, however, interesting to get
a third-named figure of this Psychomachia.
Some of the series were found on the win-
dows of both the north and south sides of
the chamber, and this distribution shows
that there were probably eight Virtues in
all. The four which were found were all
crowned, armed with mail, and bore shields
and various weapons (see Plates).

Crocker's beautiful drawings of the three
Virtues, also engraved after Stothard, give
some few further indications of details.
On the left jamb of the middle window on
the south side was LARGESCE trampling
down COVOTISE, a man weighed down by
many money-bags hung around his neck,
and choked with more gold which is being
poured down his throat, while he falls back
into his own strong-box. On the right
jamb DEBONERETE was birching IRA, 2 3 a
woman with one blind eye, who was tearing
her hair. The shield carried by the Virtue
was a magnificently drawn example of he-
raldry — England with the difference of two
bars. The Virtues were noble figures,
seven feet high, serene and smiling. Be-
neath both the Vices were low predella
subjects not shown by Stothard. The fourth
Virtue, as shown by the fragment in the re-
presentations, was as beautiful as any. It
is made out in more detail in Crocker's
drawing than in the engraving. She bore
a spear and a round target on which was a
cross and four lions on a green field. As-
suming that the bearings had some signifi-
cance, I shall call this Fortitude. It may
be noted that Largesse significantly hid the
blazon of her shield, and the lions and bars

M It may be noticed that in Chaucer's ' Parson's Tale ' we find
the same names of Virtues and Vices. ' The remedy against Ira
is a virtue that men clepen Mansuetude, that is Debonairetee.'
Again, ' The root of all harms is Coveitise.' ' And another manner
of remedy against Avarice is reasonable Largesse.'

The Painted Chamber at Westminster

of Debonnairete may mean strength in
patience. In regard to this last-named
figure I cannot forbear to quote a passage
from Ruskin's ' Ariadne Florentina ' : —

' It is entirely conceived in colour and
calculated for decorative effect. There is
no more light and shade in it than in a
Queen of Hearts in a pack of cards ; all
that the painter at first wants you to see
is that the young lady has a white fore-
head, and a golden crown, and a fair neck,
and a violet robe, and a crimson shield
with golden leopards on it ; and that
behind her is clear blue sky. Then,
further, he wants you to read her name,
" Debonnairete," which, when you have
read, he further expects you to consider
what it is to be debonnaire': —

' She was not brown nor dun of hue
But white as snowe fallen new,
With eyen glad, and browes bent,
Her hair down to her heles went,
And she was as simple as dove on tree,
Full debonnair of heart was she.'

On the jambs of the first window on the
south side was represented Henry the
Third's favourite subject, the Confessor
giving his ring to the pilgrim. This
window was exactly opposite the king's
bed, behind which was the magnificent
picture of the Confessor's Coronation.

All the figures on the jambs were asso-
ciated with painted tracery-canopies, and
patterns all over the stonework of the
windows. Over each canopy, and filling
one side of the arch, was the figure of an
angel with drooping wings, in garments of
blue with gilt patterns, and holding a
crown, on a red ground. 24 This composi-
tion is best explained in the engraving after
a drawing by Stephanoff, 25 where we see
on the curving undersides of the arch of the
window angels holding crowns above the
triumphant Virtues underneath.

Thepicture of theCoronation of theCon-
fessor was 10 feet 8 inches long by nearly

« Gent. Mag., Vol. 5. New S.

" Original Drawing 1821, in Library of S.K.M., but engraving
of S. W. Reynolds is fuller.

6 feet high, and was the most splendid one
in the chamber. On the background was
inscribed C'EST LE CORONEMENT SEINT
EDWARD. It appears far more perfect in
Crocker's large drawing than in the engrav-
ing (see Plate II). The drawing is exqui-
sitely minute and faithful to the mediaeval
spirit. The group of bishops to the right are
shown as almost complete, and the whole
is of the highest value as a document. The
quatrefoil opening into the oratory, which
was included in the area of this picture,
was surrounded by painted buttresses and
a gable, so that it looked like the rose
window of a church. The canopy work
over the coronation pic-
ture was especially in-
teresting, as from the
drawing we can see that
inlays of glass were re-
presented in it, and also
gold foliage on blue
glass, exactly like the
decorations of the cele-
brated retable of the
Abbey now in the
Jerusalem Chamber. 26

Raised gesso - work
gilded was lavishly used
here and there on most
of the pictures. The
crowns of the Virtues
were exquisitely embossed in this man-
ner, and the canopy-work and margins
were also patterned in gesso (Fig. 5). The
tabernacles of Stothard's Fig. 5 were
especially handsome. The colour through-
out was of the highest pitch of harmonious
brilliance — the backgrounds all of pure
ultramarine and vermilion, on which full
greens, purples, blues, crimsons, and white
and black, were relieved by passages of
delicate rose and grey violet. The faces
were slightly dark in tone, the cheeks
touched with crimson ; the eyes were

M Master Walter used similar inlays on the coronation
chair.

265

Flo. j.— Pattern of gesso-
work from the margin
of one of the window
jambs.

The Painted Chamber at Westminster

white with black pupils and a bright blue
circle around the outer rim of the iris, they
thus told in a very striking way.

Let us turn lor a moment to see our
chamber as a completely painted whole.
The Virtues and the coronation picture
were the best lighted, and in every way the
most important centres of interest. Un-
rolled on the rest of the walls were fierce
battle scenes ; a press of knights on richly
caparisoned horses forming a contused mass
oi mail, heraldic tunics, gold helmets, and
blazoned shields, with uplifted swords,
trumpets, and banners cutting against the
blue skv ; here were groups of pinnacled
towers and castles, and there, again, inte-
riors were represented within panels of gilt
tabernacle work. The first impression
must have been of the active stimulus of
colour from these painted stories all as
clear and bright as stained glass. The walls
were a romantic illuminated book of great
deeds.

The workmanship, we may say with
certainty, was, of its kind, of the highest
technical excellence, the delineation being
as swift and as sure as a Greek or Chinese
vase-painter's. Comparing the delicately
tinted yet brilliant colour shown even by
the copies with other existing examples of
the best work of the time — the altar-paint-
ing in St. Faith's Chapel and the retable,
both at Westminster, the beautiful retable
of English work off. 1300 in the Cluny
Museum (No. 1,664), tne ^ ater Norwich
retable, and also the fragments from
St. Stephen's Chapel now at the British
Museum — we can see that the painting
must have been of true tempera brought
up in successive semi-transparent films, and
finally varnished, and this is confirmed by
the accounts of materials bought tor the
work. The gilding, Rokewode says, was
found burnished upon a raised composition
under which was tinfoil, used for the pur-
pose of protecting it from damp. One of
Stothard's original drawings shows the mail

266

of one of the pictures as silvered, and this
is confirmed by the account in the Gentle-
man's Magazine, which speaks of silver and
gold enriched with stucco patterns.

In the accounts of the Painted Chamber,
size ('cole ') is the only medium mentioned,
but Eastlake has shown that in 1277
Master William was, in another place,
using honey, white wine (1 gallon, 3^.!),
and eggs, the most approved of tempera
vehicles. 27 In the account of 1289 the
following materials are mentioned : white
lead, varnish (solid, by the pound), oil (for
mixing the varnish), red lead, tinfoil, size,
gold and silver leaf, red ochre, vermilion,
indigo, azure, green, vessels, cloth, plaster,
thread, etc. 28 That azure was a precious
colour is shown by the fact that a painting
was ordered at Guildford Castle about this
time, ' without gold or azure.' In the
Westminster accounts, says Eastlake, pura
ivzura at 26 shillings a pound is distin-
guished from bis azura at five shillings.
The green curtain of the dado seems to have
been in oil-paint.-'

It was Stothard's view, expressed before
the evidence of the documents was known,
that ' the whole of the subjects had been at
least twice re-painted ; the last decoration
was certainly not earlier than Edward I.
. . . The last time the gilder was more
employed than the painter.' 3 ° The docu-
ments corroborate his view as to re-
painting.

We have seen that Master William,
king's painter to Henry III., was engaged in
the Painted Chamber in 1259, a few years
before our paintings were begun, and that
Master Walter, also king's painter, was
actually engaged on them in 1267. In
this year (1267) Henry III. addressed a
mandate to the bailiffs of London to ' pay

-" Eastlake, Vol 1. page 109

2a Ibid., pa^es 53, 54. In the 1307 account we find red and
white varnish, red lead, orpiment, oker, and brun mentioned,
also pakthred for making lines, and a provision pro factiom et
reparacionc bru ihorum.

T > As to oil painting — 'distempre de oyle ' — see Riley's Liber
Customat "><:, page lviii.

11 V M., Vol. VI, page 14.

FRAGMENTS OK THK VI]

THK CORONATION' GROUP

PLATE II. PAINTINGS IN THK PAINTED
CHAMBER AT WESTMINSTER, KROM
ER'S COPIES IN THK UNIVERSITY
GALLERIES, OXFORD.

'The Painted Chamber at Westminster

to Master Walter, our painter, 20 marks
for pictures in our great chamber at West-
minster : and that ye by no means omit to
do it.' 31 We know further that Walter,
who is called Walter of Durham in another
document of 1272, belonged to a later
generation than William, who is heard of
as early as 1240. Walter remained painter
toEdward I. as late asi 301, when hepainted
the coronation chair preserved at the Abbey,
on which are still some vestiges of pat-
terned work in gilt gesso. It is possible
to suppose that the scheme for the chamber
was arranged by Master William the
painter, in conjunction with the king, but
I cannot agree with Stothard and Roke-
wode that the designs date from a time
before the fire of 1262. I may also men-
tion that Rokewode is certainly mistaken
in speaking of Odo of Westminster and
his son Edward as painters. The former
was a goldsmith, the latter the king's clerk.
The accounts for 1292 and 1294 show
that Master Walter was receiving one shil-
ling a day, and give the names of a large
number of other painters engaged on the
work, of whom John of Soninghull and
Richard Essex seem to have been paid at
the same rate as the master, while the rest
received 6d. or 5d. a day. 32

The picture of St. Faith, mentioned
above, is of earlier style than the paintings
of the chamber, and from the known
dates of works at the Abbey we may pro-
bably assign it to the decade 1250—60. On
the left-hand side of it can be seen a small
kneeling figure of a Benedictine monk in
the well-known posture of the donor of a
picture. This is probably none other than
William the painter himself, who in some
of the documents is described as ' Monk
of Westminster.' 33 Besides the coronation
chair slight vestiges of a painting by

81 Walpole's ' Anecdotes of Painting.'

82 The original Rolls are at the Record Office. Q. R. Works,
20 & 22 Edw. I. See 467, 2 & 3, and 467, 6, d. In all about
thirty painters are named in these and another roll of the same
time : Add. MS. 24548 in the British Museum.

33 Compare Matthew of Paris in MS. Royal 4 C VII.

Master Walter are to be seen on the base-
ment of the tomb of Queen Eleanor in the
Abbey Church, and the splendid retable,
now in Jerusalem Chamber, may also pro-
bably be his work. Some dignified paint-
ings of kings filling panels in the back of
the sedilia of the church are, we may
suppose, the work of Master Thomas, son
of Walter, for the sedilia of the church
was set up in 1307. It was in this very
year, as we have seen, that Master Thomas
of Westminster was engaged on work in
the chamber, repairing various defects ' in
divers ystories,' and working on divers draw-
ings; he was assisted by about a dozen
other painters. He and three or four other
masters received only 6d. a day. 34

I have described above, as fully as may
be, the general distribution of the paint-
ings on the walls of the King's Great
Chamber. So many of those paintings, of
which copies have been preserved, clustered
about the central south window, which
was itself substantially perfect at the time
the records were made, that it would be
quite easy to make a practically correct
restored drawing of a length of this side
of the chamber. 35 If thiswere done it would
form a valuable memorial of the work of
the Westminster masters of painting, of
whom Master William and Master Walter
stand as the Cimabue and Giotto.

* # * *

While the above has been in type I have
found an important entry in regard to the
Painted Chamber in some miscellaneous
accounts, chiefly relating to the Abbey
church, printed in Scott's 'Gleanings'
(p. 113) : — Here it appears that in 1272
Master William, painter and monkof West-
minster, was paid twenty marks for the
painted tabernacle around the king's bed
in his chamber. The surmise that Master
William was engaged on the decorations
of the Painted Chamber is thus justified.

SJ The original account, only partly extracted, is Add. MS.
30263 at the British Museum.

** Stothard's Fig. i also came from the lowest row on this side

26g

SOME ENGLISH ARCHITECTURAL LEADWORK

J5T* BY LAWRENCE WEAVER, F.S.A. J»»
PART I— THE EARLY PERIOD

IF the artistic history of
lpewter deserves, as it does,
'study and illustration, surely
Jead has an equal claim. In
jsome of it> uses pewter is
£i>— y y--**ra silver's poor relation and its
substitute, but lead stands by itself. It
takes no rarer metal's place, and has values
all its own. No valid comparison is, how-
ever, possible, for the pewterer was a
domestic craftsman, the leadworker an
architectural. Lead rainwater pipe heads
show a characteristic English metal worked
into its most characteristic English form.
Foreign craftsmen equalled their English
contemporaries in many uses of lead, and
surpassed them in its application to medi-
aeval roofing. In the lead fonts of Nor-
man times, and the lead gutters, pipes, pipe
heads and cisterns of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries, the Englishman not only
was supreme but had practically no com-
petitors.

Rainwater leadwork divides itself
roughly into two great periods, one ex-
tending from the earliest examples of the
middle of the sixteenth century until about
1640, and the other including the work of
the second half of the seventeenth and the
first half of the eighteenth centuries.
After 1750 there is nothing of much
interest except a few local schools, as for
example those of Aberdeen and of Shrop-
shire. There the craft, instead of dying
down into simple dullness, sometimes bor-
rowed conventions from other sources, such
as plasterwork, and produced examples
often lacking a sense of material, but not
without decorative charm.

The first period, with which I shall here
deal, beginning before the Renaissance
touched the plumber's art, and continuing
until the new ideas were beginning to be

felt, may fairly be called the Augustan age of
English leadwork. During the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries the English crafts-
man in lead had apparently lost the emi-
nence which the lead fonts of the twelfth
century had won tor him. We can show
nothing to compare with the delicate
crockets and leafwork of French mediaeval
roofs which Burges so faithfully recorded.
When, however, stone gargoyles were
abandoned for external lead downpipes and
heads, the English plumber came into his
own again, and at a time when his ideas of
design were, with his material, in the melt-
ing pot.

Plumbers were conservative craftsmen,
a reputation which I believe they enjoy to-
day. It is constantly found that leadwork,
judged by design and treatment, is fifty
years or more behind the stone carving and
plasterwork contemporary with it.

The reason tor this is, doubtless, that no
foreign leadworkers were imported with
Torrisnano or with the German craftsmen
who followed when the Italians fell into
evil political odour. Even had they come,
they would have brought no tradition to
disturb the English treatment winch had
held sway since Henry III directed that
lead downpipes be fixed at the Tower of
London. External rainwater pipes are an
English device, and the Continent never
took to the idea. The gothic tradition,
which persisted so long in the shells of
buildings, and was discarded tor Renais-
sance treatment at first only in such details
as stone carving, continued long in the
details of leadwork.

The head at Windsor Castle (Fig. 14)
is of 1 589, and is purely in the old manner ;
and another, which is fellow to it, and bears
the date in bold figures, has a lion which
prances in vigorous mediaeval style.

-
-
z

Some

At Haddon Hall the lead heads are
numerous, and, like most things there, a
liberal education. The continuous build-
ing which enables us, as we move trom
one room to another, to step from one cen-
tury to another, and to see the development
of treatment and feeling, say of wood
panelling, in its best expressions, does us
the same kindness with the leadwork. The
heads range from about 1580 to 1696, and
beginning in work of purely gothic feeling
run on to the stiff vase-shaped heads which
are the common form of the eighteenth
century. Some are direct descendants of
the stone gargoyles. Indeed the gargoyles
have been disestablished in their favour.
The lead spouts from the stone figures
which originally discharged clear ot the
building were shortened, and now discharge
into pipe heads. In two cases the crafts-
man manifestly has been influenced by the
gargoyle idea, and has fashioned the front
of the heads as more or less human faces,
one of a settled melancholy (Fig. 4), the
other expressing a slightly humorous dis-
satisfaction. Save for the two laughing
masks, prophetic of Dr. Johnson, on an
example of 1699 at Durham Castle, I do
not know of any other heads which are
frankly amusing. In Fig. 5 is shown a
head on the great hall, lower court. A
long embattled gutter discharges into one
end. The head has a fleur-de-lys cresting
and a tracery disc on the front, but no trace
of Renaissance treatment. Dr. Charles
Cox, in a paper on Derbyshire Plumbery,
illustrates a head similar to that of Fig. 5,
but without a gutter, and with a circular
disc of a rather richer tracery than the
simple wheel pattern of my example. He
dates it as probably of the first half of the
sixteenth century, possibly of the time of
Sir Henry Vernon, who died in 15 15. I
think the total absence of Renaissance feel-
ing makes this theory plausible, and if it
can be maintained the head is the earliest
I know. But I am sceptical. The Eyam

English zArchitectural Leadwork

Hall heads have a very similar Jieur-de-lys
cresting, but one is dated 1676. I cite this
as showing that the quite gothic treatment
does not necessarily indicate early work.

Mr. Lethaby, in his most stimulating
little book on leadwork, figures a head the
same as my example, but he shows no
gutter with it. Moreover, the top pipe
socket bears, in his sketch, the Vernon
boars head erased, whereas the only existing
head which has the boar's head on the top
socket has a peacock displayed instead of a
tracery disc on the front. If the Manners
peacock is, if I may say so, indigenous to
the head on which it is now fixed, it dates
the head somewhere probably not earlier
than 1577, when Sir John Manners went
to live at Haddon on the death of his
father-in-law, certainly not earlier than
1567, when he married Dorothy Vernon,
and so demolishes the idea of a head of
1 5 15. I incline to place it about 1580.
Other heads are of the simple turreted
type with embattled cresting, but the finest
are those on the north side of the lower
court (Fig. 2). A delightful feature is
formed by outer fronts of pierced tracery,
which produce lights and shadows of amaz-
ing grace. This tracery, and the delicate
cornice with dentils, seem to me one of the
happiest possible combinations of the tra-
ditional gothic with the new ideas. The
shield on the pipe socket shows three
lozenges in /esse for Montagu. As Sir John
Manners did not marry Frances, daughter
of Edward Lord Montagu, until 1628, we
have here treatment which is almost en-
tirely gothic, over a century after the first
Italian invasion. If my page is here some-
what overcharged with names and dates, it
is by way of illustrating the slow impact
of the new ideas and the permanence of
the gothic spirit.

Returning to Fig. 2, the three pen-
dent knobs, the middle one polygonal
while the outer ones are round, are a plea-
sant relief to the line of the underside of

273

Some English ^Architectural Lead work

the bowl. This illustration shows a very
delightful feature of old leadwork in the
silvery grey patches which relieve the
main blackness. Modern lead gives and
can give no such effects, for all its impuri-
ties (silver, arsenic, etc.) arc painfully re-
moved. Possibly the arsenic (the oxide
of which is white) has to be thanked tor
these exquisite gradations of tone.

Not only the heads but the pipe sockets
show a wealth of care and invention. One
is shown in Fig. 13, the shield bearing the
arms of the Pembrugge family, a harry of
six. Clearly the Haddon plumbers were
historically minded, for it was about the
middle of the fourteenth century that a
Vernon married a Pembrugge.

I am indebted to the kindness of Cap-
tain Charles Lindsay for the fine Haddon
photographs here reproduced.

While Haddon Hall provides the finest
group of heads regarded as an historical
series, Knole Park, Sevenoaks, certainly
gives us the finest series of heads of one
date. Dating from 1604 to 1607, there
are torty-seven in all. These heads not
only touch the highest point of decorative
charm, but from the wealth of treatment
seem to me also to reach the limit of dex-
terous craftsmanship. The excellence of
the workmanship is such, that in spite of
the delicacy of much of the detail and the
great number of parts of which each head
is made up, most of them are to-day in
very fair condition. In this connexion I
venture to criticize some remarks on lead
heads by Mr. Reginald Blomfield, A.R.A.,
in his history of ' Renaissance Architec-
ture.' He says that towards the latter part
of the seventeenth century the older and
simpler treatment of heads gave way to
more recondite forms owing to the ambi-
tion of the plumber, now become a very
dexterous workman, to show his skill.
He points to the 1730 head in the Square
at Shrewsbury (Fig. 8) as illustrating the
change that was destroying English crafts-

manship. Mr. Blomfield suggests that the
workman had long since passed the limi-
tations imposed by technical inexperience,
and could not resist the temptation to sacri-
fice artistic value to mechanical skill. I
venture, however, to say that the elaborate
work on the heads of Haddon and Knole
and Hatfield ot the early seventeenth cen-
tury required, in all respects, as full a
knowledge of the plumber's craft as the
later work at Shrewsbury and elsewhere.
While the gross richness of the later work
is generally produced merely by applying
an excess of ornaments, the early work is
not lacking in an equally rich but withal
restrained treatment of applied castings. In
addition, we have the delicacy of the pierced
work, and the colour treatment of painting,
gilding, and tinning, which called for a
dexterity more marked than is needed for
cast work however elaborate.

With regard to the modelling of the
cast ornaments, the lion of 1589 on the
Windsor head is at least as good an effort
as the acanthus leaves and swags of the
later heads. I think that the decline in
charm which we feel towards the end of
the seventeenth century is due rather to a
general decline in taste, and to the sinking
in importance of the individual craftsman
owing to the growth of power of the
architect. Moreover, the interest taken
by the architect in leadwork was faint. I
think this is proved by the poverty of de-
sign of the water leadwork on the Wren
churches.

On the south front at Knole two heads
have pierced and twisted terminals which
match the characteristic early Jacobean
stone finials (Fig. 6). They bear, as do
many others, the initials, arms, and crest of
Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset, who
enlarged and beautified Knole.

Another on the south front (Fig. 1) has
incised bands and straps, which were
probably filled originally with black or
coloured mastic. The cresting, as in most

>..■',. 1\ INCH

1 ADDON HALL

1IADDON HALL

HATFIELD

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURAL LEAD
WORK, PLATE II

COVENTRY

UKAMHALL

'4 ' '- <s>>

i ^5&

H ADDON HALL

WINDSOR CASTLE

GUILDFORD

! ARCHITECTURAL LEAD
WORK, PLATE III

Some English ^Architectural Leadwork

of them, is a delicate battlement springing
from a cable moulding.

The east front has eight heads, all small
and of one type, but each with some
difference in treatment.

The Stone Court and Green Court heads
are large and rich. One bears pentacles
(Fig. 12), significant I am told of Thomas
Sackville's masonic interests. I believe this
is problematical, and that the pentacle is
there as a pleasant geometrical ornament
very suitable for tinning.

Pierced work like lace applied flat, flat
pierced panels forming false fronts and
throwing sharp shadows, pierced turrets,
pierced pendants finishing in polygonal
faced balls, solid turrets innumerable,
chequers, chevrons, 8's, and strapwork in
bright tinning, plans irregular or balanced,
all go to make up a variety of treatment
that indicates the apogee of the lead-
worker's art.

At Hatfield House there is a fine series
of heads ranging from 1 6 1 o. Several are
very large, and two of the largest fit round
angles of the building and rest on the stone
cornice which is pierced vertically to take
the funnel outlet (Fig. 7). They bear
the Cecil coat with supporters.

Some of the smaller heads have simple
chevrons in bright tinning, and are so like
the Knole heads in small details that I am
tempted to the belief that the master
plumber who finished working at Knole for
the earl of Dorset about 1608 went on to
Hatfield to do the work there in 16 10.

At Abbot's Hospital, Guildford, is a
series of 14 pipe heads and pipes dated
from 1627 to 1629. Two on the High
Street front are very elaborate and fit into
the corners. The delicate brattishing on
the top is a delightful feature (Fig. 15).
The pipe sockets are really more inter-
esting than the heads, having raised
cable bands and ornamental patterns tinned
on the face. The pipes have been painted
freely, and as the tinning only stands up

about one-sixteenth of an inch it is visible
only on careful examination. There are
nine patterns in all, including various types
of cross and thtjieur-de-lys.

At St. John's College, Oxford, are four
magnificent heads of 1630, the important
features of which are the elaborate paint-
ing and gilding of the lead. The royal
arms and the arms of Archbishop Laud
are blazoned in their proper colours, and
the turreted face of the heads and the
funnel outlets are painted black and white
in chevron bands and in many other
delightful patterns.

We are indebted to the painstaking care
of Mr. F. W. Troup for the brilliant resto-
ration of this colour work. Fortunately
there were sufficient traces of the old
colour to make its accurate renewal a cer-
tainty and not a speculation. This colour
treatment was probably not uncommon in
the seventeenth century, but three centu-
ries have weathered most of it away.
Two heads on the Bodleian Library retain
traces, but apparently only of black and
white. Gilt relief was doubtless quite
common ; the heads at Condover Hall and
on the new buildings at Magdalen College,
Oxford, are so treated. As Viollet-le-Duc
says : ' Mediaeval lead was wrought like
colossal goldsmith's work,' and a profusion
of gilding would lend actuality to this
impression. It is curious in this connec-
tion to note (Mr. Masse's book is my
authority) that the painting and gilding
of pewter were stringently forbidden, and
cases are cited where failure to obey the
rule of the Pewterers' Company resulted in
heavy penalties. A plumber's meat was
apparently a pewterer's poison.

Dome Alley, Winchester, shows a de-
lightful arrangement whereby the water
issues from the valley of the roof under a
decorated lead apron into along gutter and
is discharged into the side of a head, and
so through a downpipe reaches the ground
(Fig. 3). The buildings of Dome Alley

279

Some English Architectural Leadwork

rative motive suggesting water, but search
has so far been vain, if we except the hori-
zontal zig-zag bands that are fairly common.

are probably Elizabethan. The original
gables were cut down to their present form.
I am told that there is nothing in the
treatment of the heraldic charges to con-
tradict the idea that the leadwork is of
Queen Mary's reign, but I incline to date
it about 1580. The triangular aprons are
unusual, and if they date from the altera-
tion of the gables, it may be that the
leadwork is as late as 1620.

The heads have lost the knobs at the
top and curls at the bottom which Two-
peny's drawing, made in 1833, shows.

With the Dome Alley gutters it is in-
teresting to compare another gutter at Old
Palace Yard, Coventry (Fig. 11), of vine
pattern, which is singularly fine, combin-
ing naturalistic treatment of the leaves and
tendrils with a conventional composition.
I think it may be attributed to 1580.

In Mr. Lethaby's book is a sketch of lead
gutter (Fig. 9), pipe (Fig. 10), and pipe
head (not illustrated) on a cottage at Bram-
hall, Cheshire. The cottage has been pulled
down, and, after much difficulty, I found and
photographed the leadwork in a builder's
yard. The gutter (another vine pattern)
and the pipe are particularly beautiful, the
head dated 1698 is less remarkable. I incline
to believe that the pipe and gutter date
from about 1600, and that originally the
pipe fitted round the gutter outlet without
any head being used. As this arrangement
would tend to cause overflows the head
was added a century later. The bead and
reel ornament on edges of pipe is unusual ;
in fact, I do not know of another use of it
in English leadwork, since the time of the
Anglo-Roman coffins, save on a Durham
Castle head of 1699. The vine ornament
on the face of the pipe, the socket bear-
ing a crowned portcullis, and the ears
covered with a tracery ornament make up,
I think, the most beautiful pipe in England.
To the symbolist on the prowl, water lead-
work will be a disappointment. It would
be only reasonable to look for some deco-

280

As, however, zig-zags as symbolic of water
are archaic, the symbolism, if it can be
claimed, is probably quite unconscious.
I know of one lead cistern of 1724, the
front of which is decorated with frogs,
a commentary grim enough on the fauna
of eighteenth-century drinking water, but
hardly fit food for the symbolist's medi-
tation. I confess to a small yearning to
find some bands of wavy lines on the
front of a head, or some modification of a
wave scroll. I should be grateful even for
a fylfot.

Rainwater cisterns do not come within
the scope of this article. They cover abig
field in the artistic treatment of large plain
surfaces of regular form. The designer of
cisterns had a different decorative problem
to face, and more limitations than in the
case of rainwater heads. The latter pre-
sent no restrictions as to modelling, indeed
the requirements of differently placed
gutter outlets demand irregular, sometimes
even bizarre, shapes.

Heads are, in fact, either glorified gut-
ters or glorified funnels ; in neither case
does water stand in them, they serve simply
to direct it to its downpipe. Irregularity
in plan and section is, therefore, no prac-
tical disadvantage, but cisterns demand a
regular and plain inside surface that can
readily be cleaned.

It is interesting to note that London,
where the heads are chiefly dreary repeti-
tions of a not very distinguished type, is
wealthy in cisterns. Bloomsbury areas are
full of them. By reason of the fact that
20, Hanover Square is the Common Lodg-
ing House of Learned Societies (I borrow
a friend's phrase) the simple lead cistern in
the area is probably the most familiar
London example.

The Knole photographs are by Essenhigh Corke and Co.

(To be concluded.)

ECCLESIASTICAL DRESS IN ART

J5T* BY EGERTON BECK ^

ARTICLE I— COLOUR (PART I)

OME knowledge of eccle- without substantial change from the middle

isiology in general, and of
'ecclesiastical dress in par-
ticular, is an advantage to all
whose business it is to de-
scribe works of art : for
students of certain schools
of painting it is a necessity. The know-
ledge, for example, that the dress worn by a
donor is that of a particular order, of the
canons of a particular church, of some par-
ticular dignitary, might be of material assis-
tance; just as a mistake in such a matter
might vitiate an argument. It is, however,
in England comparatively rare to find any
adequate appreciation of the subject.

A writer who would shrink from calling
a grenadier's bearskin a hat, or a herald's
tabard a coat, sees no incongruity in speak-
ing of a bishop in chasuble and mitre as
wearing 'magnificent robes' — a term which
to one accustomed to chasubles and mitres
is suggestive of anything rather than the
facts. Even by salaried officials, from
whom we have a right to expect better
things, scant, if any, effort seems to be
made to master and use the proper terms ;
one need but refer to the National Gallery
catalogue (igoi) in which Richelieu, in
the full length portrait by Philip de
Champagne, is described as being in a sur-
plice, though, as a matter of fact, he is
wearing a rochet. 1 The explanation may,
perhaps, be found in a certain attitude of
mind of the average, even the educated,
Englishman. Whilst many are interested
in the religious orders, the institutions, the
ceremonies of the Catholic Church, few in
practice seem able to grasp the fact that
these are still living things coming down

1 There is another mistake in the catalogue in connexion with
this picture. It says that the cardinal is wearing the order of
St. Louis. His order is that of the Holy Ghost. The cross of
St. Louis had a figure of that saint on it ; the cross of the Holy
Ghost a dove, and it is a dove in the picture. It is hard to
believe that the officials of the National Gallery have never
heard of a cordon bleu.

ages in a stream of uninterrupted tradition ;
or to understand that where there has been
change, it is change which has sprung
gradually and naturally out of that which
was already in existence. Moreover the
idea does not seem readily to suggest itself,
or to be easily allowed, that something
may be learnt from those to whom daily
use and wont makes such things familiar.
An instance will explain what I mean.
The author of some papers on ' English
Academical Dress,' published in The
Archaeological journal for 1893, na< ^ occa "
sion to refer to the mantellettum. He natu-
rally enough quotes the definition given by
Du Cange, but does not understand it.
Although Du Cange took this definition
from the Caeremoniale Episcoporum, it does
not seem to have occurred to the writer that
he could have got the information he wanted
from those to whom the Caeremoniale is
more familiar than Du Cange or even than
The Archaeological Journal ; or assuredly,
being a learned man and a professor, he
would have turned to them, and so per-
chance have saved himself from writing
learned nonsense. 2

Though many gross mistakes could be
avoided with a little care and by inquiry in
the right quarters, the subject of ecclesi-
astical dress is in many ways obscure, and
one on which it is not altogether easy to
obtain accurate information. Books will
not suffice : thev are often worse than use-

less, they are misleading. Personal investi-
gation is necessary. The subject, too, is
complicated beyond expression by the ap-
palling number of ' privileges ' which have
been granted or tacitly allowed. Nothing

5 The writer tells us that from Du Cange he could not make
out whether the mantellettum ' was something worn over the rochet
or was a form of the rochet itself ' ; that ' it is said vaguely to be
worn "abroad in some places" by Doctors of Canon Law, in
which case it is ckarly to be identified, as it has been [one
wonders by what doctor !] with the " mozette." '

28l

Ecclesiastical lDress in zArt

is too great, nothing is too small, to be the
subject matter of an ecclesiastical privilege.
In the sixteenth century we find the bishop
of Teramo, in the Abruzzi, in that age, and
in fact, a peaceable person enough, singing
mass in full armour, his arms lying on the
altar the while ; in the nineteenth, a chap-
lain of the king of Spain distinguished by
a green tuft, tassel, or button on his skull-
cap. In addition to privileges there are
distinctions assumed without authority ;
the provost of a collegiate church, for in-
stance, was given permission to have a
train to his cassock, but as he already used
one, he commuted the privilege, on his
own authority, for a violet biretta. 3 One
may laugh at these exhibitions of petty
vanity, but they are found in all ages, and
the result is often puzzling and sometimes
not to the ecclesiologist only.

The difficulty is increased by the changes
which are made in the course of time in
the choir dress of capitular bodies : of this
the cathedral of Strasburg affords a good
example. The clergy of the cathedral was
composed of three classes of ecclesiastics
and corporate bodies — the first of these, the
occupants of the highest row of stalls, were
the ' lords, princes, and counts of the grand
chapter,' otherwise the ' lords canons-pre-
latesof thegrand chapter,' and these formed
the real capitular body to whom alone per-
tained capitular rights ; then came the ' grand
choir,' who took the middle rowof stalls and
officiated at the ordinary services; and lastly,
in the lowest row of stalls, the chaplains.
The ' lords, princes, and counts of the grand
chapter ' belonged to the noblest families of
Germany and France. For the German
stalls only the issue of princes and counts
of the empire for a certain number of
generations back, on both father and
mother's side, were eligible ; for the French
ones, a third of the whole number, but few
families were sufficiently noble — those of
Bourbon, Lorraine, La Tour d'Auvergne,

8 The square cap worn by most ecclesiastics.
282

Rohan, and LaTremouille probably exhaust
the list. 4 These great personages were as
distinguished by their dress as by their
lineage. Originally this dress consisted of
a black cassock, a surplice, and a black fur
tippet, called an almuce. At the end of
the fourteenth century the colour of the
almuce was changed to grey ; at the be-
ginning of the fifteenth the black cassock
was replaced by a violet velvet simarre fi A
century later the almuce was changed
again ; in place of the grey, a white one
spotted with grey was adopted. In 161 5
the violet simarre was changed for a red
one, also velvet ; to which at the begin-
ning of the eighteenth century was added
a train. One might think that the dress
of the canons of Strasburg had attained its
full development, and that a red velvet
simarre with hanging sleeves and a train, a
lace surplice, and a white fur almuce would
satisfy even this chapter of ' lords, princes,
and counts.' But it was not so. In 1775,
a few years before its dissolution, a pec-
toral cross of peculiar design was given by
Louis XVI, and the canons were required
to swear that they would never lay it
aside, to whatever dignity they might be
raised. 6 Examples of similar, though not
of such extensive changes, might be multi-
plied indefinitely ; but this one must suf-
fice. It is impossible, within the limits of
these papers, to do more than touch the
fringe of the subject.

There is now no choice allowed to the
clergy as to the colour of their dress ; but
this was not always the case. It is true
that laws forbidding certain colours to
clerks were enacted by council aftercouncil;
but it is quite evident that in practice these

4 In 1785 the grand chapter included a prince of Lorraine, a
Rohan-Guemenee, three Hohenlohes, and a Salm-Salm ; and
among the ' domiciliates,' supernumeraries who succeeded to
the capitular stalls as vacancies occurred, were a Salm-Salm,
three Rohans, and a La Tremouille. See Gabrielly, La France
Chevaleresgue et Capitulaire en 1785.

5 I am not quite sure what this was exactly, but think that it
was a loose cassock with large sleeves. The word has several
meanings.

6 Grandidier, Essais stir la catheirale de Strasbourg (Strasb. 1782),
pages 201-2, 310-n, 387.

laws were ignored, and this not by clerks
only : we find, for instance, a bishop of
Le Puy, in the early part of the fourteenth
century, dressing his ecclesiastical house-
hold in green, one of the colours which
had been forbidden by the third council of
the Lateran a hundred years earlier. 7 And
this seems to be the common fate of eccle-
siastical sumptuary laws ; even now the
explicit directions of the Caerimoniale Episco-
porum are disregarded, not by clerks but by
bishops. The Le Puy inventory not only
shows that it is unsafe to assume that prac-
tice follows the law ; it also suggests that
there was no uniformity of practice in any
given place, that the household of a bishop
might be in green one year, blue the next,
red the following, at the caprice of their
master. 8 As to other ecclesiastics, the
extant inventories show that at one and the
same time they had dresses of various
colours, red, blue, green, purple.

In the matter of colours of ecclesiastical
dress, the easy method of generalization in
ignorance of the facts is unsafe ; the only
safe course is to take the different colours
in order, and to endeavour to ascertain
by what classes each has been used. But
a word in explanation is necessary. The
habits of the religious orders and congre-
gations, using the words in their more ex-
tended and popular sense, will be dealt
with in future papers ; but it will be neces-
sary to refer to the colours of those habits
in the present paper for the reason that
cardinals and bishops who belong to the
monastic and mendicant orders, though
they have for long worn the prelatial
dress, keep to the colour or colours of the
habit of their order — and it must be noted

~ See the inventory of the goods of Peter Gogueil, bishop of
Le Puy, made in 1327, at his death, printed in the Annates de la
Sociiti d' agriculture, sciences et arts du Puy, Vol. xxviii (1866-67),
at p. 582. For a knowledge of this and the other inventories to
which I shall refer I am indebted to that invaluable work La
Bibliographic generate des inventaires imprimis, by Messrs. Fernand
de Mely and Edmund Bishop (Paris : Imprimerie Nationale,
1892-95).

8 The words of the inventory are : Due pecie integre ilhus panm
quo dictus Dominus Feins condam episcopus hoc anno se et suos in-
duerat.

Ecclesiastical Dress in zArt

that abbots may easily be mistaken for
bishops. It is, perhaps, also advisable to
note that we are not at present concerned
with the eucharistic vestments or the
cope.

Red has been used for many centuries
by the Roman pontiff. It is commonly
said that at the beginning of the sixth cen-
tury the emperor, Justin I, authorized the
pope, John I, to use the imperial colour ;
but it will be enough, and more than
enough, for the present purpose to say
that the papal red was referred to by an
eleventh-century writer, St. Peter Damian. 9
The popes have also used a white cassock
from an early date ; there is reason for
thinking that this custom is at least as old
as the end of the eleventh century. 10 At
the present day whilst the pope uses white
for his cassock, sash, collar, and stockings,
he uses red for everything else — except
during the octave of Easter, when the moz-
zetta 11 and the camauro 12 are white. The
papal red is a crimson. I am unable to
say whether this was always the case ; but
that it was so at the beginning of the six-
teenth century Raphael's Julius II in the
National Gallery and his Leo X in the
Pitti palace bear witness.

Papal legates also used the papal colour,
and this even when they were monks or
friars. 13 The portrait of one such legate,
Cardinal Albergati, a Carthusian, is pre-
served in the Vienna gallery, and in it the
cardinal legate is represented in a crimson
mantle. 14 The portrait I5 was painted by
John van Eyck between 1430 and 1435,

s See his letter to the antipope Honorius II, Cadalous bishop
of Parma (Migne, Patrol, cxliv, 242), written some time between
the end of the year 1061 and the beginning of 1069.

10 See Moroni, Dizionario di Erudizione (Venice,i840-i86i), xevi,
239, and De Marca, De Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii (Naples,
1771), Lib. v, cap. 52.

» A tippet with a small hood attached.

12 The peculiar papal head-dress.

1 3 See De Marca, loc. cit.; Moroni, liv, 142; and Responsorum
divini humaniqm Juris Consultorum de Bireto Coccineo dando S. R. B.
CanUnalibus regularibus (Rome, 1606), Resp. viii, 1— the first edi-
tion of this work was published in Rome in 1592 according to
Moroni but it is not in the British Museum.

" This seems to be the mantle of the caffa magna, which in its
complete form consists of a mantle, reaching to the feet, and a
tippet covered with fur in the winter, with a hood.

» Reproduced in The Burlington Magazine, Vol. V, p. 193.

A A

283

Ecclesiastical TDress in *Art

so that if the colour be authentic, it is
evidence for the use of crimson by the
popes at that date. The privilege of using
red was not extended to nuncios as a class ;
but in 1 77 1 the nuncio to the court of
France was allowed to wear a scarlet, not
a crimson, dress when, directly represent-
ing the pope, he received the profession,
as a Carmelite, of Madame Louise of
France, daughter of Louis XV. 16

The red hat was granted to cardinals by
Innocent IV at the council of Lyons, in
1245, and was conferred for the first time
at Cluny in 1246. Of this there is con-
temporary evidence ; that of the Franciscan
Nicholas of Curbio, who was appointed
bishop of Assisi in 1247. 17 Soon after his
election in 1464, Paul II gave secular car-
dinals the red biretta ; of this too we have
contemporary evidence in the Commen-
taries of James Ammanati, called Piccolo-
mini, bishop of Pavia, the Cardinalis Papi-
ensis, who was a cardinal at the time. 18
Platina, another contemporary, adds that
the pope ordered, proposita poena, that no
one but a cardinal should use it. 19 Cardi-
nals who were monks or friars did not get
the red biretta from Paul II, but it was
conceded to them in 1 59 1 by Gregory
XIV. 20 These are, I believe, the only
exact dates which can be given with any
degree of certainty in connexion with the
use of scarlet by cardinals. As to the rest
of their dress some writers assert that they
received permission to wear red from
Boniface VIII (1294— 1303) ; but this ap-
pears to be an assertion without warrant,
and to have gained authority by mere
repetition. It seems probable that the use
of the red cappa dates from the time of
Paul II, for Paris de Grassis, a canon of

16 Moroni, xxxi, 81.

V Vita Innoccntii Papae IV. scripta a Fratrc Nicolao de Curbio
Ordinis Minorum postmodum Episcopo Assisinatensi, cap. xxi ; in
Muratori, Return Italicarum Scriptores, iii. 592.

18 Epistolae et Commentarii Jacobi Piccolomini Cardinalis Papiensis
(Milan, 1506), p. 350.

19 Historia B. Platina de Vitis Pontijicum Romanorum (Cologne,
1600), p. 339.

20 Moroni, v, 157 ; Macri, Hierolexican (Rome, 1677), s. v.
Cardinalis.

284

Bologna and papal master of ceremonies,
who wrote some thirty years after the
death of that pope, says that he had read
that cardinals began to wear it during his
pontificate, before which it had been re-
served to legates. 21 Cardinals are indeed
represented in red in Orcagna's Coronation
of the Virgin in the National Gallery ; in a
tapestry made for St. Mary's hall, Coventry,
before 1447 ; 22 and in the early fifteenth
century Histoire des Rot's de France in the
British Museum. 23 But no sound deduc-
tion can be drawn from these or similar
instances. In an English Horae of the
first half of the fifteenth century 24 we
find a cardinal in a blue cappa ; in a
Spanish MS. 25 of the same century an-
other in a violet one ; and in French
miniatures and pictures cardinals are found
in blue, violet, grey, and other colours. 26 It
is only in the second half of the fifteenth
century that cardinals generally are repre-
sented in red; there are examples by Cri-
velli, by Luca Signorelli, and by the
Masters of Liesborn and Werden in the
National Gallery. The earliest item of
real evidence which I have seen is a refer-
ence to the cardinals as a body in the acts
of the fifth council of the Lateran and its
twelfth session (15 17), which certainly im-
plies that they then officially wore the
' purple.' 27

But it maybe doubted whether even then
the cassock was of necessity of the same
colour as the cappa. In an early sixteenth
century tapestry belonging to Mr. Pierpont
Morgan which is on view in the Victoria
and Albert Museum, among other figures
are two cardinals, in red cappa and hat,
one of whom shows his right arm clothed

21 P.Crassi . . . De Ciremoniis Cardinalium et Episcoporum (Rome,
1563). Though the book was first printed in 1563, it was written
between the years 1502 and 1510.

22 Reproduced in Shaw's Dresses and Decorations.

23 Royal MSS. 20 C vii.

24 Victoria and Albert Museum (MS. given by Mr. George
Reid in 1902).

25 British Museum. Add. MSS. 18,193.

26 Quicherat, Histoire du Costume en France (Paris, 1875), p. 318.
' 2 " In the Schedula contra invadentes domos Cardinalium, in which
the cardinals are referred to in the words quibus sacrosancta militans
Ecclesia tanquam purpurea tota decoratur amictu.

in blue. The tapestry deserves attention
because it is easy to see that the artist has
paid considerable attention to the exactness
of his details. Pictures by Perugino and
Luca Signorelli in the National Gallery
also show the red cappa with a cassock of
some other colour. It would be unwise
to lay too much stress on paintings of this
kind; but we see the same thing in the por-
trait of Cardinal Hippolytus dei Medici,
by Sebastiano del Piombo, in which the
cardinal has a red mozzetta and apparently
a black cassock. This suggestion is sup-
ported to some extent by Paris de Grassis,
who it will be remembered wrote his
Ceremonial between 1 502 and 1 5 1 o. Speak-
ing of a cardinal's mourning, he says
that it should never interfere with the
public gladness of a great feast. As a con-
cession, however, to human weakness, if a
cardinal's grief were very great, Grassis, in
his official character as ceremoniar, allows
that such cardinal might wear his violet
cappa on his way to the church and there
change it for a red one ; but there is not a
word of the cassock.

The cardinalitial red is a scarlet, though
it is technically called purple. Some very
good examples of it are to be seen in the
National Gallery — in Orcagna's Corona-
tion of the Virgin ; Luca Signorelli's
Virgin crowned by Angels ; Crivelli's
Ascoli altarpiece and his Madonna della
Rondine. In the Victoria and Albert
Museum, we have Rizzoni's portrait of
Cardinal Barnabo, kneeling in the church
of St. Honuphrius in Rome, and Petitot's
miniature of Cardinal Mazarin. The
cappa magna in Philip de Champaigne's
full-length portrait of Richelieu in the
National Gallery is a striking example of
what the colour should not be. Another
example of false colour in the same gallery,
is the mozzetta in the portrait of a cardinal
by El Greco. 28 Yet another bad example

88 Is there any reason for saying, as the catalogue does, that
this ' is probably nothing more than one of those realistic repre-

Ecclesiastical T)ress in zArt

is the portrait of Cardinal Newman in the
National Portrait Gallery : to realize how
bad this is, it is only necessary to compare
the colour of the mantle sash and skullcap,
with that of the mozzetta in the portrait
of Cardinal Manning, by Watts, which
hangs a few yards away.

Formerly bishops considered themselves
at liberty to use red as may be seen from
the inventories made of their goods for
probate purposes. 29 There are, at the
present day, a few who, with the excep-
tion of the hat, and in one case of the skull-
cap, dress exactly like cardinals. These
are the archbishops of Salzburg, Cologne,
Gnesen and Posen, the patriarch of Lisbon,
the archbishop of Mohilev and Minsk,
and the archbishop of Warsaw. I have
not been able to ascertain how far back
the use of red by the archbishop of
Salzburg goes, but it is based, so the writers
tell us, traditionally on the fact of his being
a legatus tiatus, i0 a dignity attached to the
see by Alexander II (1061-1073). 3I
Whether, however, this is the case, or
whether red was adopted for reasons of
congruence does not appear. It has been
stated that the archbishops of Salzburg
placed the red hat over their arms, 32 but of
this I have failed to find any confirmation.
The archbishop of Cologne was made a
legatus natus in 1380, and I am given to
understand that the use of red began at the
same time ; but the earliest known portrait
of an archbishop in that colour is that of
Ernest, duke of Bavaria, who governed the

sentations of the Fathers of the Church, of which there are other
examples ' by El Greco ? I would suggest the possibility of its
being the portrait of Cardinal Louis Cornaro, who was arch-
bishop of Zara and afterwards administrator of Trani, Bergamo,
etc. He was born in 1516 and so would have been sixty in 1576,
the year before El Greco is believed to have left Venice. The
name and date were painted later than the picture. May it not
be that the present inscription is an unfaithful restoration of
the original ?

25 See for examples that of Henry Bowet, archbishop of York
(1423), published in Raine's Testamenta Eboracensia, iii, pp. 72,
73 (Surtees Society), and that of Philip of Burgundy, archbishop
of Utrecht (1524), printed in Matthaeus, Vtlcris A~vi Analecta (The
Hague, 1738), i, 210.

8U Hansiz, Germania Sacra (Augsburg, 1727-29), ii, 8.

81 Metzger, Historia Salisburgensis (Salzburg, 1692), p. 316.

M Macri, Hitrolexkon, s. v. Cardinalis.

285

Ecclesiastical T>ress in *Art

diocese from 158310 1612. 33 The arch-
bishop of Gnesen, primate of Poland, re-
ceived the title of legatus natus and permis-
sion to wear scarlet from Leo X, 34 i.e. some
time between the years 1 5 1 3 and 1 522. In
the Dulwich gallery is a portrait of an
ecclesiastic in red mozzetta and skullcap,
said in the catalogue to be the brother of
Stanislas II, king of Poland, that is Michael
Poniatowski, who was archbishop of
Gnesen 35 from 1785 to 1794.

The use of scarlet by the other three pre-
lates is of much more recent origin. The
patriarchate of Lisbon was erected in 1 7 1 8 ;
the city being divided between the old
archbishop and the new patriarch till 1740,
when the archbishopric was abolished.
The patriarch was given the purple, but in
his case it is not of much importance, from
the point of view of the artist, as since 1737,
he has always been created a cardinal in the
consistory following that of his preconisa-
tion. 36 The see of Mohilev and Minsk
was erected in 1783 and the archbishop
placed over all the Latin catholics of Russia.
The emperor asked Pius VI to make him
a cardinal ; there were reasons which made
this inexpedient, and the pope refused but,
to soften the refusal, he gave the archbishop
and his successors permission to dress as
cardinals. 37 The archbishop of Warsaw
was in 1 8 1 8 granted a similar but less ex-
tensive privilege, for in his case the red
skullcap was expressly excepted. 38

Another bishop who dresses in red is the
patriarch of Venice; but his red is not the
cardinalitial scarlet. When I was in Venice
the present pope, then Cardinal Sarto, was
patriarch and of course he, as cardinal, wore
the ' purple.' But I am informed that the

33 For this and other information relating to the see of Cologne
I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Theodore Collme, one
of the vicars of the cathedral.

84 I have to thank the Rev. F. Komski, secretary to the present
archbishop of Gnesen and Posen, for these details.

35 Till 1821, Gnesen (in Polish Gniezno) was a separate see.
In that year the ancient see of Posen was erected into an arch-
bishopric and united with Gnesen.

86 Moroni, xxxviii, 313, 314.

87 Baldassari, Relaziont dclte Avversitd 1 Patimenti del Glcrioso
Papa I'io VI (Second Edition, Modena, 1842), vol. iii, p. 160.

38 Moroni, lxxxviii, 152.

286

red of the Venetian patriarch is a dark
shade. Moroni states, moreover, that the
patriarch uses a ' crimson ' skullcap. 39 I am
unable to say when the patriarch of Venice
began to wear red. My courteous inform-
ant 4 ° could only tell me that the use went
back ' to the time of the republic,' that is
at least to the eighteenth century.

Subject to what will be said in the next
paragraph, this, to the best of my belief,
completes the list of bishops who now use
red. But formerly there were others, and
that in modern times. The patriarch of
Aquileia used 'the purple' for all but his
hat 41 and that patriarchate was suppressed
only in 1752. The archbishop-elector of
Mainz, grand chancellor of the Holy
Roman Empire and dean of the electoral
college, also wore scarlet ; but there is,
it is well to note, no painted portrait of
an archbishop of Mainz of earlier date
than the eighteenth century. 42 The arch-
bishop-elector of Trier, arch-chancellor of
the empire in Gaul and Aries, on ordinary
days wore a black cassock edged with red,
but on gala occasions he too wore ' the
purple ' of a cardinal. 43 Early in the eigh-
teenth century the archbishop of Prague,
primate of Bohemia, seems to have adopted
scarlet, for in 1723 a vigorous protest was
sent to Rome by the archbishops of Salz-
burg and Cologne, 44 the result being that
the Bohemian prelate had to be content
with violet. It is perhaps worth mention-
ing that in 1825 the archbishop of Rheims
was given permission, on the occasion of
the coronation of Charles X, to dress as a
cardinal with the exception of the skull-
cap. This is probably not a solitary case,
but I know of no other.

Some bishops enjoy a privilege of a more
limited character. The archbishop of Pisa

89 Of. cit. v, 175.

40 Father Bernardine, a Carmelite belonging to the convent of
the Scalzi.

41 Macri, Hierolexuon, s.v. Cardinalis.

43 Mgr. Schneider, canon of the cathedral, obligingly gave me
this information about Mainz.

« So I am informed by the secretary of the bishop of Trier.

44 Gcrmania Sacra, ii, 8.

wears a scarlet cappa magna, but in other
respects he dresses as any other bishop. 45
I have been unable to ascertain when he
first did this, but it was certainly not later
than the earliest years of the eighteenth
century. 46 The archbishop of Cagliari in
Sardinia appears to have or to have had
the same privilege, for in 1701 we find
the cathedral chapter objecting to the
archbishop, a mercedarian, wearing a red
cappa on the ground that he was a regular. 47
The archbishop of Seville also wears a red
cappa, not scarlet, however, but cherry-
coloured. 48 The bishop of Tortosa in
Catalonia was given a very different privi-
lege by Adrian VI, that is in 1522 or
1523 — -the right to wear a red biretta,
and this has been maintained to present
times. 49

The privilege of the bishop of Tortosa
suggests a possible explanation of a curious
portrait hanging in the large Tuscan room
of the National Gallery ; it is labelled
' Portrait of a Cardinal,' but the dress is
unusual. The biretta indeed is scarlet and
cardinalitial, the mozzetta is decidedly
violet. It is true that a cardinal uses a
violet mozzetta in penitential seasons, at
times of mourning, and in Rome on some
other occasions ; but he would hardly
choose it for his portrait. A reasonable
explanation seems to be that this is the
portrait not of a cardinal but of a bishop
who either, like the bishop of Tortosa,
had the privilege, possibly a personal
one, of wearing a red biretta, or wore
one without permission. The latter alter-
native is far from being an unlikely one ;
in 173 1, the bishop of Malta was called
upon, by the Roman authorities, to explain

*' Mr. Montgomery Carmichael, the British vice-consul in
Leghorn, very kindly made inquiries for me on this point.

■" The privilege is mentioned in the second edition of Ughelli,
Italia Sacra (Venice, 1717-1722) iii, 348 — a volume published in
1717.

47 Decree of the S. C of rites, reported in Barbier de Montault,
Le Costume (Paris, 1898), i, 315.

4S For this item of information I have to thank a friend who
knows Seville.

4 ' Barbier de Montault, op. cit. i, 230.

Ecclesiastical T)ress in *Art

why he wore a red biretta on certain feasts
and a white one upon others. 50

So much for bishops. Now a word must
be said of two other classes, both connected
with the papal court — clerical chamberlains
and chaplains.

All these functionaries wear a red
cappa of a particular form when they take
part in a ceremony at which the pope
officiates ; a chamberlain also wears this
cappa when, as ablegate, he takes the biretta
to a newly-created cardinal. But it is not
worn on any other occasion.

Red is one of the colours forbidden to
clerks by councils ; 5I but it was certainly
used by them in the middle ages. Qui-
cherat 52 says that during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries it was one of the
favourite colours in France : whilst as
to England one has but to glance at
the inventories to realize that it was
freely used. 53 There is some reason even
for thinking that the use of red may
not have been extinct among the clergy
of Venice at the end of the sixteenth
century, 54 nor among those of Benevento a
century later. 55

Chancellor Melton seems to have kept
his ' gowne of red scarlet 5(5 furred with
menyvere,' and his ' cremsyn gowne and a
hood furred with foones ' lor use outside
the church, for there is mention of' a black
abite for the church with green sarcenet
in it.' But many chapters used, and not a
few still use red for their choir dress.

i0 Barbier de Montault, 0/. cit. i, 230.

41 See Thomassin, Vitus et Nova Ecclesiae Disciflina (Lucca,
1728), Pt. I, Bk. ii, ch. 50.

« Loc. cit.

S1 For instance, those of the goods of Rich, de Ravenser, arch-
deacon of Lincoln (13S6), printed in The Proceedings of the Royal
Archaeological Institute for 1848; of John of Scarborough, rector
of Tichmarsh (1395), in Raine, Test. Ebor. iii ; of William
Melton, chancellor of York (1528), Test. Ebor. v.

54 See Constitutions et Privilegia Patriarchatus et Cltri Vene-
tiaruin (Venice, 15S7), in which its use was forbidden.

5i See the decree (1686) of Cardinal Orsini, archbishop of
Benevento, printed in Barbier de Montault, Le Costume, i, 21.

56 The term ' scarlet ' is applied to a material as well as a
colour — so that there may be not only a red scarlet but a black
scarlet ; just as now in Rome the technical word purpura denotes
a cassock with a train, which so far as colour goes may be red,
violet, rose, blue, white, black, or brown. See Annuaire Pontifical
Cathohque for 1902, p. 103.

287

Ecclesiastical T)ress in zArt

The twenty-four canons of the cathedral
of Milan are not infrequently taken by
English people for cardinals. They are
said to have dressed in red since the early
vears oi the eleventh century, and it has
been suggested that the red cappa of the
cardinal was borrowed from them. 57 The
canons of Pisa have had a red cappa tor
use in winter from time immemorial, and
since 1560 a red mozzetta for summer;
and in 1790 they were given a red cas-
sock. 58 The canons of the cathedral of
Genoa have a red cassock; 59 those of the
collegiate church of our Lady of the Vines
in the same city a red cappa. 60 Other
chapters in Italy have the right to dress in
red. 61 In France we find that the canons
of Avignon have the same privilege, 62 as
on great feasts have those of Angers 63 and
Nevers; 64 so in Portugal those of Lisbon, 65
and in Switzerland the canons-regular of
St. Maurice d'Agaune. 66 Formerly red
was worn by the canons of St. Paul's in
London ; ° 7 by those of Tournai between
the years 1300 and 1526; 68 Auxerre ;
Autun ; Le Puy ; Brioude ; Strasburg ; 6g
Mainz ; 7 ° by all or some of the dignitaries

57 Ughelli, Italia Sacra (2nd edition), iv, 19.

5h Sainati, Diario Sacro Pisano (Turin, 1898), pp. 141-2.

59 Barbier de Montault, Lc Costume, i, 276.

'" Ibid, i, 396.

61 Those of Naples (Barbier de Montault, CEuvres Completes,
Poitiers 18S9 etc. v, 10S) and Capua (Macri, Hierolexicon, s.v.
Cardinalis) have a red cappa on great feasts. It was granted to
the chapter of Venafro by Benedict XIV (1740-1758J according
to Moroni (xc, 103). There are probably others.

'■' Granted in 1676. They had worn it before this, but were
compelled to put it off in 1673 (Moroni, iii, 266). It was stated
that they had worn it from ' time immemorial,' but it must, I
think, have been assumed after 1559, as there is no mention of
it in the Histoire Chronologiqtu de I'eglise . . a" Avignon by Nougo-
uier, which was published in that year.

6J Barbier de Montault, CEuvres Computes, viii, 400.

f,) Ibid, v, 107.

f ' 6 Moroni, xxxviii, 314.

66 Canon Abbet, the claustral prior of St. Maurice d'Agaune,
has very kindly supplied me with information as to the dress of
the abbot and canons.

67 Desiderii Erasmi, Epistolae (Leyden, 1706), i, 457.

^ Dom Claude de Vert, who also mentions all the other places
except Mainz in Ceremonies de it'gUse, ii, 357 (2nd edition, Paris,
1709-13).

Ci Ante, p. 282.

711 Mgr. Schneider informed me that before Mainz was annexed
to France by Napoleon the canons had a red choir dress. He
remarked on the extreme difficulty of getting precise and accurate

of Paris, Bayeux, Coutances, and Rouen ;
and by the canons-regular of St. Vincent of
Senlis and of Semur en Auxois.

Rose. — This is a peculiar colour, lying
between the Roman violet and scarlet. 71
It might perhaps be best described as a
dull brick red. At the present day, it is
used by cardinals on Gaudete Sunday, the
third of Advent. Till comparatively re-
cent times they also used it on the fourth
Sunday in Lent ; and at the beginning
of the sixteenth century its use was much
more extensive. Paris de Grassis says that
cardinals should wear it on feasts which
were not of the first rank ; and that
bishops might wear it on those days on
which cardinals wore red. 72

Protonotaries 73 are sometimes mistaken
for cardinals because of the rose cord which
they wear on their hat. This was given
them in 1674 that they might be dis-
tinguished from other curial prelates.
Within the last few months a further
distinction of the same character, a red
tuft on their biretta, has been granted to
them by the present pope.

I know of no other ecclesiastics who
use this colour except the canons of the
cathedral of Leghorn : they wear a rose-
coloured mozzetta in choir on ordinary
days in summer. 74

(To be continued.)

information on this subject, even on the spot ; in his own
chapter, for example, there have been no written laws as to
dress.

71 In Latin rosa sicca : Italian rosaceo: French rose scche. Paris
de Grassis defines it as being inter violactum et rubeum medius.

'■ His arrangement of colours for cardinals is not devoid of
interest. He says that during the greater part of the year their
cappa should be violet, on about thirty feast days in the year red ;
and on feasts not the greatest, such as those of the Blessed
Virgin, other than the Assumption, and of the Apostles, rose.

"■' The college of protonotaries apostolic has only seven mem-
bers, who are officially styled de numero participantium. There
are three classes of honorary protonotaries : (i) Those who are
styled ad instar participantium, and have for the most part the
same privileges as the members of the college; (2) Canons of
certain cathedrals who have been given the privileges of proto-
notaries within, generally speaking, the limits of their diocese
only: these are now known as supernumerary protonotaries;
(3) Titular protonotaries who do not wear the red cord or the tuft.

7< I am indebted to Mr. Carmichael for this information : he
obtained it for me from Canon Polese, a member of the chapter.

288

A TUDOR MANOR HOUSE: SUTTON PLACE BY GUILDFORD 1

J9* BY ROBERT DELL ^

naturally as he breathed, and who translated
them, so to speak, into English in thisSurrey
manor? We do not know, and it is un-

MONG the monuments
that still remain to us of
the great period of Eng-
lish domestic architecture
which was contempo-
raneous with the reigns of
the Tudor sovereigns, are some with which
Sutton Place cannot pretend to vie in mag-
nificence ; but, apart from its beauty — less
splendid but no less real than that of the
great Tudor palaces — it has a special claim
to consideration, not because it is entirely
typical of its timeandcountry, but rather be-
cause it is not. It stands, in many respects,
almost alone in the domestic architecture of
the early sixteenth century, this strangely
attractive building, neither gothic nor Re-
nascence, neither wholly English nor wholly
Italian, nor yet a mere eclectic mixture
of styles such as we know too well in these
days, but a composition in which diverse
elements have been cunningly welded to
produce a unity that is different from any
of them and sui generis.

We have called Sutton Place a Tudor
house ; but that is only historically a strictly
accurate description. Architecturally it is
not an ordinaryTudor house ; earlyTudor it
is, undoubtedly, in its main features, and, if it
must be catalogued, the Tudor style is that
to which it will be assigned ; but it rather
belongs to a style of its own, of which it is
the only example except Layer Marney in
Essex, which approaches it more nearly
than any other building of the period. It
must have been the creation of an individual
genius. Was itsdesigneratravelled English-
man who had brought home with him from
Italy, or possibly from France, a knowledge
of and taste for the artistic Renascence which
had as yet scarcely touched his native
country ? Was he an Italian who had
sucked in the ideas of the Renascence as

> For most of the facts in this article the writer is indebted to
Mr. Frederic Harrison's fascinating ' Annals of an Old Manor
House ' (Macmillan), which should be read by everyone interested
in the subject.

likely that we ever shall know. We do
indeed know that the house was built by
Sir Richard Weston, Knight of the Bath,
Privy Councillor, and a statesman of no
little importance in his day, who, in 1521,
received from Henry VIII the grant of the
royal manor of Sutton by Guildford, but
whether Sir Richard was or was not
his own architect we cannot tell. If he
was, he deserves a high place in the annals
of English art ; for such a combination of
daring originality with taste and restraint,
as is shown in Sutton Place, is rare. Mr.
Frederic Harrison thinks it likely that the
house was the work of builders trained in
gothic art, but working under the artistic
superintendence of Trevisano (Girolamo da
Treviso) or one of the other Italians attached
to the court of Henry VIII, but there is no
positive evidence available.

In any case Sir Richard Weston himself
had had the opportunity of coming under
the influence of the Italian Renascence, if
only at second hand. In 1518 he went
to France on a special embassy from
Henry VIII to Francis I ; two years later
he accompanied Henry VIII to the Field
of the Cloth of Gold ; three years later still
he was there again, on a mission not of
peace but of war, and took part in the siege
of Boulogne. In France he must have seen
the domestic chateaux that were then
springing up all over the country to
replace the old chCiteaux forts ; although,
therefore, it is unlikely that the concep-
tion and design of his house were his
own, it is probable that they represent his
personal taste. However this may be,
he built, somewhere between 1521 and
1525, on his new estate the house which,
except that it has lost one side of its chief
quadrangle, still stands almost in every de-
tail the same as when it left its builders'

289

Sutton Place by Guildford

hands. It is a striking example of the
right way to use foreign influences in art.
Strong as is the influence of the Italian
Renascence, not merely in ornamental de-
tails, but to some extent in the whole con-
ception and even in the materials used, yet
this building is entirely suited to its en-
vironment. It is English in plan, quad-
rangular like other houses of the period ;
fundamentally it is an example of that
perpendicular style which is the one native
English style of architecture ; its great
mullioned windows with their perpendicu-
lar traceries are like those that we see in
other buildings of the first half of the six-
teenth century. It could be nothing but
an English manor house, and would be as
much out of place in any other country as
is a pseudo-classical temple of the eigh-
teenth century in an English park. The
architect, whoever he was, knew that,
though architecture may borrow from
other countries, it must belong fundamen-
tally to its own. He did not, like Wren
and his contemporaries, import an exotic
style which, great though its intrinsic
merits are, and suitable and natural as it is
to Italy, is unsuitable and meaningless in
England. Had his example been followed,
we might not have had to lament the de-
struction of English architecture, checked
in its natural development by an artificial
and belated classicism.

Before we go further, it may be of
interest to note that Sutton Place has never
changed hands by sale since it was built,
and is now in the possession of a cadet of
the Weston family in the female line,
though not a descendant of Sir Richard
Weston, the original owner of the estate,
and founder of the Sutton branch of the
family. The line of Sir Richard Weston
became extinct by the death in 1782 at the
age of seventy-nine of Melior Mary Wes-
ton, daughter and heiress of John Weston.
By her the estate was bequeathed to John
Webbe, also of Sarnesfield Court, Hereford-

290

shire, fifth in descent from Dorothy Wes-
ton, sister of the first earl of Portland and
wife of Sir Edward Pincheon, and through
her descended from the Essex branch of the
Weston family. John Webbe-Weston (he
assumed the latter surname under the will
of his kinswoman) had two sons, both of
whom married but died childless, and on
his death in 1823 he bequeathed the Sut-
ton estate to Francis Henry Salvin, sixth son
of his second daughter Mary Ann by her
marriage with Thomas Salvin, of Crox-
dale, Durham. Mr. Salvin died last year
at the age of eighty-seven, and the estate
passed to one of his relatives. It is also
an interesting fact that Sutton Place
has been continuously in Catholic hands
from its foundation, the successive owners
of the property never having swerved from
the ancient faith.

Sutton Place has been let for many years;
it was for some years occupied by the late
Mr. Frederick Harrison and, after his death
in 1 88 1, by his distinguished son. Not
very long ago it was let on a long lease to
Sir Alfred and Lady Harmsworth, by whose
kind permission the photographs from
which our illustrations are made have been
taken. Lady Harmsworth takes a keen
interest in the beautiful house, which has
been furnished and decorated under her
own supervision. It does not come within
the scope of this article to deal with the
furniture of the house, but it would be un-
gracious not to mention the admirable taste
which is shown in every detail. Every-
thing in the house is in keeping with it ;
that is not to say that all the furniture,
tapestries, and pictures are of the sixteenth
century ; such a limitation would be as
impossible as it is unnecessary. But nearly
all the furniture is ancient, most of it is
English, and all of it is suited to its en-
vironment. Whatever additions have been
made in the way of domestic comforts and
conveniences have been made without in
the least injuring the house or altering its

EAST

PLATE I. SUTTOM PLACE BY
GV1LDFOFD

THE DINING-ROOM

PLATE II. SUTTON TLACE BY
GUILDFORD

character, and its furnishing has been
guided by a unity of artistic conception as
real as that which inspired its builders.

One of the most interesting points about
Sutton is the fact that it is built entirely
of brick and terra-cotta, no stone at all
having been used. The building is dressed
with terra-cotta in precisely the same way
as other brick buildings are dressed with
stone ; the mullions, turrets, arches, and
other details are all moulded in this ma-
terial. This use of terra-cotta in the con-
struction as well as in the ornament makes
Sutton of particular interest to architects
and builders in these days when the em-
ployment of terra-cotta in building has
been revived after centuries of disuse. It
is in the details of the terra-cotta mould-
ings that the influence of the Renascence
shows itself most strongly in Sutton. The
amorini over the doors in the north and
south wings, the arabesque work, the mul-
lions of the windows, and most of the other
ornaments are distinctly Renascence and
even Italian in character, but they are
widely different from the pseudo-classical
ornament of a later age. The way in which
this ornament is harmonized with and
adapted to a building fundamentally gothic
is very remarkable, and whoever was re-
sponsible for it was a true artist. One is
struck by no incongruity between the build-
ing itself and its decoration ; taste and skill
have preserved a complete unity.

Another feature in the house which is
certainly of foreign origin is the stepping
of the gables ; an example of this may be
seen in the gables at the north ends of the
east and west wings in the first illustration. 2
Mr. Frederic Harrison quotes Mr. J. J.
Stevenson as saying that this was originally
a French artifice ; one would rather have
thought it to be Flemish ; at any rate,
wherever it originated, it is one of the
most characteristic features of the archi-
tecture of the Netherlands, as every visitor

a Plate I, page 291.

Sutton Place by Guildford

to Bruges must have observed. It also, of
course, became very common in Scotland.
Mr. Frederic Harrison also rightly finds
Renascence influence in the symmetry of
the quadrangle at Sutton, and the regu-
larity of the facade. The quadrangle, in
its original form when the northern wing
was standing, was exactly square, measuring
81 ft. 3 in. in each direction ; it would also
be exactly symmetrical were it not for
some irregularity in the intervals of the
windows in the western wins;.

The house as originally built consisted
of the main quadrangle, of which three
sides are still standing (see illustration ) ;
the small quadrangle which now adjoins the
west wing is not part of the original house,
but was added to it at a later date ; it con-
tains no terra-cotta. The northern wing
of the main quadrangle, which has now
disappeared, contained a gateway with a
gate tower about 70 ft. high (that is, rather
more than double the height of the existing
house) which was flanked by two large oc-
tagonal turrets which served as staircases to
reach the upper story of the tower. This
north wing was with the east wing injured
by the fire which occurred in the reign of
Elizabeth ; the rooms injured by that fire,
in Mr. Frederic Harrison's opinion, were
probably never completely refitted and fur-
nished. The Weston family seem to have
resided on their other property, Clandon,
and not at Sutton, from the time of Sir
Henry Weston (1535-92) to that of the
third Sir Richard Weston, who, eleven
years before his death, which occurred in
1652, had sold the Clandon estate to Sir
Richard Onslow. Sir Richard Weston
encumbered his estate by unfortunate specu-
lations, and was probably unable to restore
Sutton properly. He therefore fitted up
the west wing for use, and perhaps added
the small quadrangle on the west side of
the house.

The north wing had in any case become

» Plate I, page 291.
B B 295

Sutton Place by Guildford

ruinous when John Webbe-Weston suc-
ceeded to the estate in 1782, and in the
same year he demolished the whole of it,
including the gate-house and tower. The
quadrangle was thus thrown open in the
way that will be seen in the illustration.
Nothing but want of funds prevented
Mr. Webbe-Weston from entirely destroy-
ing the house ; under his instructions, the
Italian architect Bonomi had prepared
designs for transforming it into an imita-
tion of a classical temple, but happily
they were too expensive for Mr. Webbe-
Weston's pocket, and the house was saved
for the benefit of people with better taste
than himself. Since that time it has been
piously preserved, and stands in its original
condition except that about a dozen of the
windows have modern mullions and frames
which were inserted by the late Mr.
Frederick Harrison in 1 875, in place of
sash windows which had been substituted
for the old ones at some time in the
eighteenth century. The new mullions
and frames were taken in moulds from casts
of the existing ancient windows.

The main entrance to the house was
formerly in the centre of the south wing,
facing the gate-house, which has now dis-
appeared ; but, as this door enters straight
into the great hall, it has long been dis-
used, and one now enters the house by the
door in the west wing. This door opens
into an outer hall adjoining the panelled
room, which is now used as the entrance
hall of the house, though in the seven-
teenth century it was known as the parlour.
The walls of this entrance hall are covered
with seventeenth -century oak-panelling,
which was restored to its original condition
in 1 874 by the late Mr. Frederick Harrison,
who removed the canvas and paint with
which it was covered. The fireplace is of
the same date as the house, and is almost
identical with that in the great hall; both
are of terra-cotta, and are decorated with
the pomegranate, the badge of Catherine

296

of Aragon. Over the fireplace are the arms
of Weston impaling those of Copley, being
the coat of the first John Weston, who
married in 1637 Mary, daughter and heiress
of William Copley, of Gatton, Surrey.
Through the door shown in the picture of
the panelled hall 4 one passes into a lobby
from which ascends the staircase to the
bedrooms which occupy the first floor of
this wing, and immediately opposite this
door is the door of the dining-room, which
is also illustrated. 4 The panelling of this
beautiful room does not belong to the
house ; it has been placed in its present
position within the last few years, and
the four fine tapestries (three of which
are shown in the illustration) were fitted
in at the same time. Off the dining-room
is a small library or study, which forms
the north end of the west wing.

Returning from the dining-room through
the panelled hall, and passing along a wide
passage, which turns round into the south
wing, we have the drawing-room on our
right. This room, which was originally the
kitchen, is now decorated with white panel-
ling in the style of the eighteenth century,
but Lady Harmsworth regards its present
arrangement as only temporary, and it is,
therefore, not illustrated. Its windows are
all on the garden side of the house, facing
south. 5 The greater part of the south wing
is composed of the great hall, which occupies
both storeys, 6 and it has eighteen windows,
ten on the north side facing the court, and
eight on the south side facing the garden.
There is a door into the garden imme-
diately opposite that on the north side,
which opens into the middle of the court.
This is a magnificent and nobly-proportioned
room, 5 1 ft. 6 in. in length, 26 ft. in breadth,
and nearly 31 ft. in height. The walls are
covered by oak-panelling of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries up to about half
their height, and the terra-cotta fireplace,
like that in the small hall, is of the same

4 Plate II, page 294.
5 Plate I, page 291. s Plates III, p. 297 and IV, p. 300.

Rate hi. tiii_ great halL,
sutton place by guildford

;

THE LONG -.111:1 1ST WING

date as the house. The illustrations will
give some idea of the general effect of the
hall, which contains several interesting
portraits belonging to the owners of the
house. One of its most remarkable features
is the splendid series of armorial painted
glass in the windows ; this glass requires an
article to itself, and it is impossible here to
do more than refer the reader to Mr.
Frederic Harrison's account, which is
finely illustrated by plates in colour. 7 The
ceiling is of flat plaster, and is probably
original; at least, Mr. Frederic Harrison
points out that the beams in the roof over
the ceiling were evidently not constructed
to be shown as an open timber roof.
There is a gallery both on the east and west
sides of the hall; that on the west side is
shown in the illustration on plate III, and the
other is immediately opposite it. This
was, of course, originally the dining hall of
the house, and the high table no doubt stood
very much in the position now occupied
by the billiard table.

The door seen in the illustration on
plate III gives on to the west wing, and the
staircase seen through it leads up to the long
gallery, which occupies the whole of the
first floor of that wing. 8 It is very im-
probable that this floor was originally
arranged as a long gallery ; it was almost
certainly divided up into rooms as the first
floor of the east wing is at present, and the
probability is that it was never properly
restored after the fire in 1 560. The panel-
ling in the room is mostly of the eighteenth
century, though a little of it is earlier ; it
came from another house, and was placed
here by the late Mr. Harrison when he
restored the gallery. The gallery, including
the staircase, measures 1 52 by 2 1 ft., and has
windows on three sides of the wing. Hung
as it is at present with fine tapestries, and
furnished with exquisite taste, it is perhaps
the most attractive room in the house, and
our illustration, small as it is, gives some

1 ' Annals of an Old Manor House,' Chap. XII, pp. 164-190.
8 Plate IV, page 300.

Sutton Place by Guildford

idea of the impression that one receives
when one enters the gallery from the stair-
case. The ground floor of the east wing
has not been restored since the fire of 1 560,
and is at present disused.

It has been impossible, within the limits
of a short article, to do anything like justice
to the merits of this beautiful house ; but
this cursory description will have served its
purpose if it incites those who are interested
in English architecture to refer to Mr.
Frederic Harrison's work on the subject, or
to obtain permission to visit Sutton. One
ventures to hope that it may even perhaps
induce architects with houses to design not
hastily to dismiss the possibilities of the per-
pendicular style of architecture. Sutton
Place is a striking example of those possi-
bilities ; it shows that perpendicular archi-
tecture is quite compatible with modern
ideas of comfort. Here is a house which,
in the words of an auctioneer's advertise-
ment, is 'replete with every modern con-
venience,' yet at the same time its value as
a workof art has been in no way diminished.
If it has been possible so to adapt asixteenth-
century house, much more possible must it
be to build one in the same style with all the
arrangements that modern needs demand.
If we had in the twentieth century any
architectural style of our own, one would
not for a moment suggest recurrence to a
style of the past. But since all modern
architecture that is worth anything is a
copy or adaptation of what has gone before,
surely it would be better to copy or adapt
the one style of architecture which really
belongs to this country. Perhaps perpen-
dicular architecture, if it were generally
adopted, might be made a starting point for
a genuine architectural development. The
experiment is worth trying, and it is very
much to be regretted that it is not tried
when such opportunities arise as that
which is afforded, to take a notable instance,
by the new Kingsway which is now being
made between Holborn and the Strand.

301

OPUS ANGLICANUM AT THE BURLINGTON FINE ARTS CLUB

BY MAY MORRIS

N no public gathering do we,
nor can we in the nature of
'things, have shows so severe
quality as those at the
urlington Fine Arts Club,
land since its first announce-
i^Jrment in the spring the ex-
J^^Qhibition of English Embroi-
deries of earl}' date has been eagerly looked for.
On considering the exhibits as a whole, one
is more than ever struck by the versatility of the
mediaeval genius at its best and happiest moments.
But there is more than this ; there is a certain
quality in the work produced that may some-
times be missed, overloaded, maybe, by that very
versatility and the exuberant life that must be
expressed anyhow and everywhere. For instance,
in making a study of one particular type of Opus
Anglicanum such as the Pienza cope lately figured
in these pages, one finds the same design persist-
ing in half-a-dozen of these pieces, the same saints
standing in those now familiar arcades with
twisted columns and lion bases. Turn over the
pages of any manuscript of the period and similar
pictures meet the eye : the same appeal, the same
dramatic trick, the same slight touch of humour
and homely sentiment. At the sight of so much
repetition, it would be but natural to grow
vaguely weary of the invention that seems to
be limited on all sides by the necessity of supply-
ing a certain sentiment and a certain legend to
the popular demand. As Emile Male would say,
a great French portal or painted window was
literally a sermon in stone or glass; certain canons
have to be observed, certain stories must be told
in just oneway, certain figures should be drawn on
such and such lines. The stern archaic head of
Christ looks out of a picture full of fourteenth-
century elegancies ; St. Peter is recognizable
always by the sturdy square head and close-curled
grey hair ; the figures in a story are grouped as in
a pageant-play familiar to all eyes, in which the
actors have posed themselves in the same attitudes
for generations, well aware that their patrons will
allow no innovation in gesture or expression. But
this is not the whole story, and ' the little more '
happens to be just the secret of the charm. If
there were nothing but the ' popular ' element in
mediaeval art, it would be as unendurable as it is
actually delightful. The early-fourteenth-century
Apocalypse pictures often fatigue the eye by their
childlike representation of impossibilities, but the
wonder expressed in them and the rare moments
of illumination when the painter, in a happy dream,
seems to have peered through the window of
heaven in the company of St. John himself — these
things give us a not infrequent sight of the
thoughts and aspirations of the mediaeval mind.
And though the church embroideries, for obvious

reasons, give the story of the religion rather than
its visions, we have here, too (less markedly), a
feeling that at the back of the obvious and
commonplace lies a plane of thought of some
spaciousness and dignity. On all of them lies the
freshness and vivacity of the artist in love with his
task and amused by it ; all the pieces I am specially
noting here are, roughly speaking, the product of
the same forty or fifty years of artistic activity in
England ; each of them has a different flavour
and a different charm, a charm not lost through
the almost painfully laborious medium of fine
stitching.

The cope on crimson velvet which, cut up into
chasuble, stole, maniple, and altar-hanging, was
formerly partly at Mount St. Mary's College,
Chesterfield, and partly in the family whose
present representative, Colonel Butler-Bovvdon,
now lends it, is one of the series of copes designed
after one pattern, with certain modifications. 1 I
should say this piece is about the simplest of the
copes in radiating arcades, as the St. John Lateran
one is the most intricate. It is interesting to com-
pare the two, that under our eyes being far more
dignified for the broad planning of the figures and
the plainer design of the three zones of arcading.
The colour of it is masterly, the pearly quality of
the orphrey finely opposed to the rich red mass of
the body of the vestment, whose hem is encircled
by a narrow border of flowery green and white and
purple, freshly simple. The whole thing was at
one time savagely cut, but has been pieced to-
gether by a distinguished and learned hand, no
attempt being made to ' restore ' the missing por-
tions, which are merely explained by slight painting
on the canvas backing. The body of the cope is
divided into three series of arcading with twisted
oak-leaf columns and lions' heads for capitals.
The centre is occupied by the Annunciation, the
Adoration of the Wise Men, and the Coronation
of the Blessed Virgin. Single figures, standing on
a wreath-twisted platform, fill the rest of the
ground. In the upper series are SS. Stephen and
Lawrence, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. Helena.
St. Edward the Confessor holding a church stands
at one end of the second row, and St. Edmund
the King with an arrow at the other. Next him
is an archbishop, probably Thomas of Canterbury.
Within are Margaret and Catherine of Alexandria,
John the Baptist, and John the Evangelist, and a
bishop. The outer row gives the apostles, and
the whole piece presents a most useful and in-
forming series of the symbols of saints and
apostles in these earliest fourteenth-century days. 2
It is a somewhat matter-of-fact piece, for all the
lively invention ; but an individual note is struck
by the pair of green parakeets that stand on the
crockets above the Coronation, and a touch of

1 Plate I, p. 305.

3 See page 303.

302

us zAnplicanum at

poetry supplied by the charming angels, seated in
rich green faldestols, holding stars in their laps ;
in each half-spandrel at the end is a little standing
figure stretching out his star with an eager ges-
ture. The orphrey, particularly fresh and bril-
liant, is a fine display of high personages — kings,
queens, bishops, and an archbishop ; they stand
on a golden ground figured with eagles, lions,
flower de luce, etc., while in the spandrels and
between the arcades are heraldic beasts, griffins,
and lions, all in white silk. The triangular hood,
where two angels are censing, now cut in two and
sewn to the outer edge of the embroidery, might
easily be restored to its proper place. There is a
good deal of enrichment all over the cope by
means of raised gold, fine pearls and beads ; the
angels' stars have all been covered with fine
pearls, also the lion-masks at the ' ties ' of the
net-arcade. The faces are worked after the pe-
culiar convention of the time, but more loopy than
round, and consequently flatter and less grotesque
than the faces in the Syon cope. The gold -work
is of good, bold style (the broad folds of the drapery
in silver), but not so admirable as in the Steeple
Aston cope.

In sentiment nothing could be further apart
than these two fine pieces — the Butler-Bowdon
cope and the cope which, slashed and pieced into
altar frontal and dorsal, has been preserved for so
many years in the village of Steeple Aston. 3 In
this piece there is no question of a ' touch ' of
poetry — the whole thing is entirely dream-like and
elusive. Not for choice of subjects is it so incom-
parable (just the saints' martyrdoms), nor for any-
thing that can be criticized technically from a
fresh point of view, but for its air both of simplicity
and subtlety ; it is far-off and fragile, the ghost of
something lovely, appealing not to the senses, but
to the imagination. The network of this cope was
evolved by some person who chose to screen the
order of his design by breaking the line into a tangle
of ivy and oak boughs. To describe or explain a
design of so rare a quality is to violate the charm of
its reserve ; certainly the embroiderer of his time
has imagined nothing of greater excellence. I
should not venture a definite pronouncement on the
former colour of the material this piece is worked
on ; the received opinion seems to be that it is
faded from some sort of red. If that is so I am
unwilling to recall its fresher splendour, for the
grey gold and grey white are harmonious beyond
telling, and the spots of positive colour — saints'
hair, cloak-lining, peacock wing — start up here
and there with a little wilfulness that is pleasing,
and if a fault, a trivial one. The ground is a thin
twilled silk backed with a stronger material, the
work entirely gold but for the flesh and the
touches aforesaid. All has been outlined with a
fine black line. The quatrefoils of the net are
tied by faces set in vine leaves and raised green
1 Plate I, page 305.

the Burlington Fine zArts Club

fruit, and in the spandrels are lions passant,
armed and langed azure. The centre of the cope
is occupied by The Coronation of the Blessed
Virgin, The Crucifixion, and The Bearing of the
Cross. The rest of the subjects are martyrdoms
of saints and apostles, with their names inscribed
in bold lettering. I give a list comparing the
saints in these groups with the single figures in
the Butler-Bowdon cope : —

Butler-Bowdon Cope. Steeple Aston Cope.

Matthew . . .

. Sword dr,

iwn

Simon . . .

. Saw

Bust only

Jude ....

Boat

Bust only

Thomas . . .

Spear

Pierced with spear

Andrew . . .

. Cross

Tied to cross

James the Great

. Staff and

wallet

Staff and wallet

Peter . . .

. Keys

On cross, head down-
ward

Paul ....

Sword

Beheaded

Mathias . . .

. Halberd

James the Less

Cross

Philip . . .

Loaves

Bartholomew

. Knife

Knife

Stephen

Stones

Stoned

Lawrence

. Gridiron

Gridiron

Margaret

. Dragon

Issuing from Dragon

Catherine . .

Wheel and sword

Wheel, beheaded

Barnabas . .

Beaten with clubs

The faces in this cope are different in type from
those in the Butler-Bowdon piece. In the latter the
apostles' heads are drawn with a uniform rugged-
ness, while the kings and queens are merely large-
eyed and gentle. In the Steeple Aston work we
meet with a serious wistfulness of expression ; one
or two of the heads are nobly poised, and some of
the ' bad fellows ' full of character, not merely
grotesque. The faces are in fact better drawn.
Enough is spared of the striking and beautiful
orphrey to make one lament the rest. On a golden
ground, rippled like a sunlit sea touched by the
wind, are angels, alternately front and back view.
Of those who turn their backs we have nothing
but curly locks and peacock wings. Those who
face us are mounted on horseback and playing,
one on a fiddle, the other on a cittern, and be-
tween them are medallions with the world-symbol,
the whole orphrey being Creation's hymn to the
Most High. The narrow border, all gold, consists
of woodland animals in eager chase. I regret to
see that this priceless work shows growing signs
of decay since I saw it some ten years ago. Once
mounted in the most suitable way it should be
kept framed and handled as little as possible.

Work of yet another temper (full of puzzles) is
the cope lent by the Musee Royal of Brussels, 4
which it is a privilege to see here and compare with
other things.

This cope, formerly from the church of Harle-
beke, has its orphrey and hood embroidered most
finely and minutely. It is not possible to describe
it here as closely as it deserves ; it is full of inter-
esting and curious details of dress and musical
instruments. The background of each panel is of
fine gold diaper, mostly a lozenge and keyed-cross
* riate II, page 308.

303

Opus Anglicanum at the Burlington Fine Arts Club

pattern, portions of the work such as architectural
details being emphasized by raised lines. The
martyrdoms of the apostles are figured on the
orphrey and all follow the accepted legend with
much precision. On the bottom, on the left, is
named St. Matthew (S. Matoce), but the figure
kneeling and stoned by two men is, of course,
St. Mathias, the Matthew legend being given on
the other side with much dramatic force and
named for St. Mathias (S. Mathia). Next is
St. Thomas kneeling by the heathen altar, com-
manding the destruction of the idol, the king of
India looking on. James the Less is being
clubbed in the next ; then Bartholomew flayed, a
curiously violent representation for this early
period, when the martyrdoms are usually pre-
sented with all artistic reserve. Next, St. Andrew
bound to the diagonal cross, one of his executioners
wearing a feathered cap. Then comes St. Paul be-
headed, one of ' Nero's knyghtes " looking on ;
St. Peter (See Petre) is also beheaded, curiously.
St. John the Evangelist sits in a caldron of
boiling oil, one executioner filling it from a bucket,
and the other, a man with wild green locks, stir-
ring the fire. Next is St. Matthew (named for
Mathias) ; after solemnizing the mass he is
stabbed in the back at the altar by the king's
men. St. James the Great is beheaded ; St. Philip
tied to a cross by two executioners, SS. Simon
and Jude lying on the ground are stoned by two
men, and clubbed by a third. Elegant little
angels stand in niches of the pillars, playing
various instruments, and half-length figures of the
prophets fill the spandrils. The present hood
contains the Crucifixion, the old triangular hood,
two birds with a delicate flower border, being at
the base of it. I take it that the Crucifixion was
formerly in the middle of the orphrey between
Peter and Paul. This piece has an unusual
unfamiliar look for English work of the date it
must be (not later than 1320), and leads one to
speculate on the very different schools there must
have been in England at this one time. In the
same case is another chasuble also claimed for
English, which I had already concluded with
characteristic rashness to be Italian, in spite of
the evidence of the heraldry upon it, i.e. the
shield of John Grandisson, bishop of Exeter
(1327-1369). It would, however, be impertinent
to persist in an opinion against the learning of
other peoplewith whom I have discussed this piece ;
there is, no doubt, some reason that we shall never
know for its distinctly Italian character. It is,
of course, much later than the Brussels piece.

I have unwillingly to pass with a word things
of great historical interest, as the amice-apparel
of Thomas of Canterbury, formerly in the trea-
sury of Sens Cathedral, and lent by St. Thomas's
Abbey, Erdington ; and his mitre, lent by the
archbishop of Westminster. These important
and beautiful relics belong to a school different

304

from the one I am considering, and should be
studied with other early gold-work ; the ancient
Durham ornaments, the pieces in the Hotel Cluny
at Paris, the Worcester fragments which are
exhibited here, the mitre, buskins, and sandals
from the tomb of Archbishop Hubert Walter at
Canterbury, 6 and finally with the blue chasuble
from the Victoria and Albert Museum shown here
(case A) which is a link between the English art
that is of Byzantium and that which is English
at last. Of the Worcester embroideries the later
fragments have a marked affinity with the orna-
ment on this blue chasuble ; both have the same
characteristic scroll-work with its curled leaves
and buds of early spring.

Out of a note-book crowded with reminders of
these romantic things I have to select two more
of superlative interest before concluding. From
St. Dominick's Priory at Haverstock Hill comes a
large panel consisting of an arcade in which the
figure of Our Lord sits on a gold throne. 6 His
right hand is raised in blessing, and under the
left, which holds a sceptre, is an orb divided into
three parts inscribed

1
EUROPA AFFCA and ASIA.

The design is broad in style, and indeed far larger,
as a single subject, than any embroideries with
which I am acquainted of this date, though the
work is as fine and highly finished as embroi-
deries on a much smaller scale ; the combina-
tion of breadth and delicacy gives much dis-
tinction to this piece. The ground is a dull
grey purple twilled silk seme with lions ram-
pant in gold. The figure is royally clad in a
gold mantle and brown tunic, once red (the ex-
perts say it of all these lovely pallid browns and
fawns), decorated with bands of gold-embroidered
red- purple at the neck and wrists and across the
body. The nimbus has embroidered jewels, and
the cross is laid with seed-pearls. In the spandrels
of the arch are the sun and moon with dragons
and lions above and below. Above is the Annun-
ciation in two arcades, the Blessed Virgin, with
the Holy Dove over her, standing on one side,
and the angel Gabriel on the other. The space
between is filled with a sloping arcade, alternately
red and green. The figure of Christ is strangely
solemn and concentrated in expression. It is
archaic of intent too ; the little figures above are
of their century, the Blessed Virgin, even, with a
somewhat mannered charm. But this gaunt face,
with its look beyond, has gazed on us from many
a page of Apocalypse pictures ; the Lambeth
manuscript contains it, and Mr. Yates Thompson's
Rimini manuscript, and the folds of the Ascoli
cope show it once more. Of intent and instinct
the man who invented this panel has endowed
every line of the drapery, every touch of the dead

6 Plate II, page 308. * Vetusta Monumenta, Vol. VII.

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BELONGING TO ST. WJMINICK S PRIORY, HAVERSTOCK
I FROM A PHOTOGRAPH LENT BY Till; BURLINGTON
FINE ARTS CLUB

THE HARLEIiEKE COPE BELONGING TO THE C1NQUANTENAIRE MUSEUM, BRUSSELS' FROM
THE NEW CATALOGUE OF THE MUSEUM, 11 PERMISSION OF THE DIRECTOR

OPUS ANGLICANLM AT

Opus Anglicanum at the Burlington Fine Arts Club

purple and grey gold, with austerity and aloofness,
and it is impossible not to be much moved by what
he has striven to convey, whether he has suc-
ceeded, or whether it be only his effort that
touches one.

A triumphant piece of decorative work is the
red velvet chasuble lent by Prince Solms-Braunfels.
At first the golden lions of England, set in a
golden scroll-work, is all we see. Closer examina-
tion shows that the beasts have terrible bushy
eyebrows and eyes of flat crystal, and that their
bodies are worked in fine gold, the tufted manes
done with a certain simplicity, but with an entire
command over material. Little jewels of cabochon
crystals are scattered here and there, set as it
were in a framework of black silk heightened with
seed-pearls. Among the leafage lie small figures
of men and women, elegant and idly vivacious
(courtiers all), drawn in the best possible style.
The catalogue says of this piece, 'This chasuble
appears to have been made from a horse-trapper.
Tradition has assigned an English origin to this
superb example of mediaeval art. The lions upon
the back show great similarity to those upon the
well-known shield of John of Eltham, second son
of Edward II. It is of interest to note that
Eleanor, sister of this prince, was married in 1332
to Rainald, second duke of Guelders (1326-1343),
which may perhaps explain the vestments being
in the possession of a noble German house.'
Experts tell me that the treatment of the lions is
specially English. That being so, English art of
the period is certainly full of delightful surprises,
for this scroll-work has an unusual look, and the
little ladies with their broad serene foreheads and
the gallants with their rippled yellow locks smile
from their bower of gold with a foreign grace —
Rhenish, one might have thought, or Burgundian,
and the assurance that it is English makes it the
more interesting.

One case shows some striking pieces from two
different sources, a maniple and stole lent by Miss
Weld, and a stole lent by Lord Willoughby de
Broke, all heraldic. The former are more faded
than is the latter, and are of quite delicious colour,

a ground alternately green and fawn, with vel-
vety grey-blue and so forth. The ground of Lord
Willoughby de Brake's stole remains of a pinky
shade, and this brings to my mind the question
of the use of red in these mediaeval embroideries.
The Syon cope has a fawn ground, the Steeple
Aston pieces are greyish-white ; the figure in the
Haverstock Hill panel has a fawn tunic, the stole
and maniple here have fawn-brown, and so on.
These various shades are generally taken to have
faded from some central red ; and yet, if it is so,
the dyes used must have varied immensely in
character, for some of the pieces retain their
brilliant reds and crimsons almost unchanged.
Looking at the Steeple Aston cope with a friend
one day, we came to the conclusion that the ground
here at least had never been of a full quality, for
these wonderful colourists knew better than to
overload their work by placing a black outline
round everything on a solid red ground. It has
been suggested by Mr. Kendrick that some of
these fawns may have been of a pink shade, of the
quality of Lord Willoughby de Brake's stole (the
reverse of the borders on the Syon cope shows this
same sweetish pink, while the body of it is brownish,
both back and front). It seems possible; I have
not sufficient knowledge of the history of dye-
stuffs to know what might be used for reds at the
time, beyond the well-known kermes and madder :
safflower would give, I believe, just this luscious
red and pink, and is extremely fugitive.

It is obviously impossible in a few pages to say
all one would wish to note about the exhibition.
I gather it has come as a surprise to many people
that work so distinguished, so highly developed and
so varied, should have been produced in our midst
at this early date. The surprise surprises me, for
they accept without exclamation the front of Wells
Cathedral, illuminated books from Winchester, and
so forth, and this is but part of the same story. In
the introduction to the catalogue, Mr. A. F.
Kendrick gives some most useful accounts of
English copes, etc., on the continent. The forth-
coming illustrated catalogue will prove quite essen-
tial to every student of mediaeval embroidery.

A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY WALL-PAPER AT WOTTON-

UNDER-EDGE
BY ARCHIBALD G. B. RUSSELL J0*

Chinese from very early times, wall-hangings made
of paper do not appear to have been adopted by
the west until the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury, when they began to be imported by Spanish
and Dutch merchants ; but it was not before the
end of the following century that this less costly
substitute forthe tapestries, silk and satin damasks,
figured velvets, stamped leather painted and gilded,
which formerly adorned the walls of the fortunate,

309

art. Though

T is obvious that of all kinds of
domestic decoration wall-papers
are likely to be the most perish-
able, and it is on account of the
scarcity of old examples that
this artistically important branch
of design has not yet received
attention from the historians of
they had been in use among the

*A Seventeenth-Century IV^all-paper

found its way into our islands ; and it was a hun-
dred years again, owing to the excessive tax which
hampered the industry, before it became possible
for their manufacture to be carried on at home on
any considerable scale.

The early experiments which preceded their
introduction from the east were, as is naturally to
be expected, of a purely imitative character, con-
sisting of an endeavour to provide colourable re-
productions of the fashionable hangings in a
cheaper material. As is also to be expected, the
result was possessed of little or no artistic merit.
In 1634 one John Lanyer obtained a patent for a
process of applying flock to a cotton ground, with
a view to counterfeiting damasks, Utrecht velvets,
and other luxuries, for the purpose of mural de-
coration. The idea of using a paper ground does
not seem to have occurred to him. The first papers
actually to be hung on walls in England were of
this flock description, and came into use between
the years 1670 and 1680. The invention was in-
troduced into France in 1688 by Jean Papillon, a
wood engraver, and there obtained a considerable
vogue, but only in second-rate establishments.
Then followed the production of papers in imita-
tion of leather hangings, silvered or gilded, and
ornamented with flowers and conventional patterns;
and in France there appeared also at the begin-
ning of the eighteenth century printed wall-papers
designed after the fashion of dominoterie, the
marbled or figured paper in use among book-
binders. All these kinds, however, were as inferior
in quality as they were artistically, and were
scarcely ever to be found, at any rate until the
middle of the eighteenth century, in the houses of
the upper classes, those who could not afford a
more sumptuous style remaining content to live
in simple panelled or whitewashed apartments.

But there was one exception. About the time
of the accession of William and Mary, a few years
after the Chinese craze had invaded England,
wall-papers designed and painted in China began
to reach our shores. The rapprochement with
Holland (whose oriental trade had long ago pro-
vided this luxury for herself), consequent upon the
arrival of the Dutch prince, was to some extent
responsible for this ; but our own East India
Company, which had first touched China in 1637,
had at this time a rapidly increasing traffic with
the Far East. Chinese goods of every description
(besides wall-papers), porcelain, screens, cabinets,
silks, embroideries, hanging pictures, and the
like, were imported in quantities ; and the Chinese
influence began to permeate many of our own
arts, metal work, fictiles, and embroidery being
especially tranformed by the new-fangled style.
The remarkable silver toilet set in the possession
of Sir Samuel Montagu, belonging to the years
1683 and 1687, and decorated with men, animals,
birds, trees, buildings, fountains, etc., in the
Chinese manner, is one of the most conspicuous

3IO

examples of this kind of work. So the coming
of wall-papers to match the prevailing taste was
joyfully welcomed in polite households, and
though they were far from being cheap, they were
widely employed both in England and France, and
remained in fashion for at least a century and a
half. The frequent mention in the livre-journal of
Duvaux (the middle of the eighteenth century) of
so many ' feuilles de papier la Chine, fond blanc
a fleurs et oiseaux,' being supplied for paper hang-
ings to the nobility, always has reference to these
importations from China.

The delightful wall-paper of Chinese origin of
which two specimens are here reproduced by the
courteous permission of its owner, Mr. Vincent
Perkins, has been hanging, since the close of the
seventeenth century, on the parlour walls of a
house, formerly in the possession of the Berkeley
family, at Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire.
It is thus one of the very first of the Chinese
papers to have been put up in an English house.
It is, fortunately, on the whole, with some dis-
colouration of the ground, in an excellent state of
preservation; and we cannot be too grateful for
the miracle of its survival, showing as it does
the art of the Chinese designer before it had
become contaminated with Western influences,
or done to order from Western patterns. The
colouring is executed entirely by hand, without
the aid of either block or stencil. The design, as
is always the case with Chinese papers, is varied
all the way round the room, the sections of it
being most ingeniously adapted to the exigencies
of angles and recesses. The basis of the design,
as may be seen from the illustrations, is a row
of trees, planted by the side of water upon the
projecting points of an indented shore, and
laden with blossom and fruit and large flowers.
Lotuses and other aquatic plants rise from the
water to decorate the interstices between the
stems of the trees. Pheasants, cranes, and richly-
plumaged birds rest upon the boughs and fill the
air about them, and below there are ducks,
swimming and diving. The colours are bright
and harmoniously combined, the many-hued birds
and flowers shining with jewel-like splendour
amid the pale olive and dark bluish-greens of the
foliage. The whole scheme of the design is skil-
fully subordinated to decorative necessities, the
plane of the wall surface being frankly admitted,
and no attempt made to obtain effects of relief
or perspective. It was the inability to realize
the importance of this last limitation and the
ludicrous endeavour to give an appearance of
solidity to the objects rendered which proved so
fatal to the majority of indigenous designs, until
the coming of Morris.

Another paper, nearly identical in pattern with
the one at Wotton-under-Edge, and said to have
been put up during the first years of the eighteenth
century, is in the principal room at Ightham

%■'■

A WALL-PAPER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY AT WOTTON-UNDER-EDGE ;
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALBERT DURN.

A Seventeenth-Century Wall-paper

Mote in Kent. It is rather more elaborate in
character. The ho bird (the Chinese phoenix),
the peacock, and some silver pheasants, as
well as pomegranates and bright blue irises,
appear in the design and serve to make the effect
a somewhat more sumptuous one; but the form-
less, fantastic shapes of the rocks from which the
trees spring are somewhat disquieting to a Western
eye. Unfortunately, it was found necessary by
the late owners of the house to take the paper
down for the purpose of whitening the ground
and repainting practically the whole of the
coloured parts. The result, as may be imagined,
is far from being satisfactory. The beauty of the
original design happily still remains; but the
superimposed pigment is crude in tone, and the
clean white ground is by no means to be preferred
to the rich and mellow qualities of the Wotton-
under-Edge paper, where the stains and other
marks of age are still to be seen. I am informed
by Mr. Colyer-Fergusson, the present owner of
the Mote, that there is yet another paper very
similar to his at Cobham Hall, the seat of the
Earl of Darnley.

' Whatever you have in your rooms, think first
of the walls, for they are that which makes your
house and home.' Since these words were spoken
by Morris there has been a conscious endeavour
on every side to produce beautiful designs for the

purpose of wall decoration. The wonderful ugli-
ness of the ' artistic ' wall-paper of the present day
is not so much due to want of idea on the part of
designers as to the ignorance of the structural
principles underlying the beautiful designs of
Morris and others which they strive to imitate
and only succeed in caricaturing. ' Every wall-
paper,' he said, ' must have a distinct idea in it ;
some beautiful piece of nature must have pressed
itself on our notice so forcibly that we are quite
full of it.' There is certainly a great deal worthy
of the designer's consideration in these early
Chinese productions. Probably no nation has
ever carried the science of decorative composition
and decorative convention to such an extraordi-
nary perfection as the Chinese artists. If there is
a scarcity of actual wall-papers of the early period
to which those already described belong, there is,
in the British Museum and elsewhere, an abun-
dance of hanging pictures of the same date and
earlier which will be found extremely suggestive
by the designer. The early wall-papers may also
be studied from the point of view of durability
and fastness of the colours. I have little doubt
that a lining of thick rice paper, which I found in
the case of some papers of later date in the pos-
session of Messrs. Cowtan, has had a great deal to
do with the marvellous condition of the specimen
at Wotton-under-Edge.

AN UNKNOWN FRESCO-WORK BY GUIDO RENI

BY ROBERT EISLER, FELLOW OF THE I.R. INSTITUTE

J9* FOR AUSTRIAN HISTORY J8T*

HE artistic treasure which I
am allowed to unearth here,
by the kind permission of his
Grace the Duke Don Giuseppe
Rospigliosi, 1 seems to have
escaped even the author's first
biographers. Indeed, strange
as it may seem, neither Mal-
vasia nor Baldinucci, 2 in their
lives of Guido Reni, makes the slightest mention
even of the now well-known Aurora in the
Palazzo Rospigliosi ; and Passeri himself, who
does give a description of that famous picture,
seems not to do so from ocular evidence. 3

1 I am much indebted besides to Prince Schonburg, at that
time charge d'affaires of the Austrian Embassy, and to Hofrat
Pastor, director of the Istituto Austriaco dei studi storici in
Rome, for their kind mediation.

a Can : Conte Carlo Malvasia ' Felsina pittrice,' 1672, Bologna ;
2nd ed. Bologna, 1841. Baldinucci, ' notizie dei professori da
Cimabue in qua,' 2nd ed., Florence, 1846, Vol. IV, pages 12-50.
In thelife of Giovanni da San Giovanni, IV, 231, B. says that
this painter executed a fresco on the wall 'opposite' (!) to that
where Guido had painted his famous Aurora, a blunder which
only proves that he knew neither of these pictures, which he
had probably found mentioned in the materials for Giovanni's
life given to him by the painter's relations.

8 See below, page 317.

Baglione, who was generally well informed by
means of his official position as President of the
Painters' Academy, did not write Guido's life, not
indeed, as Baldinucci believed, because the latter
refused to give him the necessary information, or
because he was ' poco amico a Guido,' as Malvasia 4
supposes, but because Guido was still alive when
Baglione's book was published, and therefore
excluded from the settled plan of this biographical
collection.

Nor does any modern writer mention the paint-
ings in question. Yet the palace which contains
them is well known to every modern and ancient
traveller ; it occupies a site between the following
modern streets : Via del Quirinale, Via della Con-
sulta, Via Nazionale, and Via Mazzarino, and was
built, as far as we know, not before 1605, 5 the
date of the election of Pope Paul V. Up to the
pontificate of Sixtus V, who intersected the

* Malvasia, 2nd ed. II, 62.

5 The date, 1603, given by Baedeker cannot be traced to any
authority. Contemporary engravings of the palace may be
found in the ' Ritratto di Roma,' 1638, and the ' Roma antica e
moderna,' 1652. The earliest description of the palace and its
decorations (in which, however, no artist's name is mentioned)
is given in the Vatican MS., Borghese IV, 50.

C C

313

zAn Unknown Fresco-worJ^ by Guido Reni

Altipiano Quirinale by several new avenues, the

greater part of it was an insula, surrounded by a

few antique streets and covered with but a few

1 'igne — combinations of vineyards and villas, each

one furnished with a casino nobilc, a giardino

secreto, a casa colonica, and an orchard, separated

from each other by box and laurel hedges, or by

the usual Italian garden walls. 6 In the middle of

these gardens lay the enormous ruins of the Con-

stantine baths, 7 before the front of them stood the

famous Horsetamers.

Still in the year 1580 the state of things was not

much altered, as the following entry in Michel de

Montaigne's diary 8 shows: —

Le quartier montueus qui estoit le siege de la vieille ville et ou
il faisoit tous les jours mil promenades et visites est scisi de
quelques eglises et maisons rares et jardins de Cardinaus.

A new era for that silent quarter began only in
the reign of Paul V. Lodovico d'Este had ceded
his casino on the Monte Cavallo, built by Cardinal
Ippolito d'Este about 1550, to Gregory XIII, who
began to transform it into a new papal palace
by the aid of the Bolognese architect Ottavio
Mascherini ' accioche i sommi pontefici passando
dal Vaticano vi potessero mutar d'aria.' 9 Paul V
was the first to take up his summer residence on
the Quirinal — even before the house was com-
pletely finished. His predecessors had had
to content themselves with the appartamento
Clementino 10 and the villa Pia, 11 in the unwhole-
some low grounds of the Vatican. 12 As formerly
in the Borgo quarter, so persons who had to live
near to the court were now compelled to acquire
houses on the Quirinal : ' Qui vicino,' says an
old Roman guide book, 13 ' il patriarca Biondo
mastro di casa di Paolo V ha fatto un luogo molto
bello, benche sia piccolo, per sua habitatione

6 See the list of the ' domus cardinalium ' in Albertini's
1 Opusculum de mirabilibus urbis Romae ' (reprint by Schmar-
sow, p. 25), written about 1510, and Bufalini's plan of Rome
(1550-60), of which an old copy is in the Imperial Library in
Vienna. The best information on the topography of the
Quirinal hill in the sixteenth century is to be found in Lan-
ciani's note in the ■ Bulletino communale di archeologia di
Roma,' 1889, p. 389 (with a plan after that of Bufalini).
D'Ancona's ' Notizia dei possessori del Quirinale, cavata da
un documento contemporaneo ' (n. 2, p. 198 of his reprint of
Montaigne's diary) is evidently based on Bufalini, but full of
errors. I do not know, for instance, why the ' vinea di Ascanio
de Cornea,' situated according to B. near the porta Pinciana
on the grounds of the later Villa Borghese, should be identified
with the later Rospigliosi palace and garden.

' If a woodcut in the Venetian edition (1588) of Andrea
Fulvio's ' Roma antica ' may be trusted, these ruins must still
have been imposing enough. A great exedra with its well-
preserved vault stood still erect, and Bufalini's plan shows how
another similar one had been enclosed as apse into the church
of S. Salvatorede Cornelii. On the east side, too, a little church
or monastery, S. Salvatore, stood amidst the ruins.

8 D'Ancona's reprint, Citta di Castello, 1895, p. ig8.

9 Baglione, p. 5.

10 Van Mander, Schilderboeck, 1604, f. 291*, still calls the
'sala del consistoro' ' de Somer-camer van den Paus.'

11 Since the villa Pia was finished, the Btlvedire was only used
for guests of minor rank.

12 ' Grave Vaticani agri coelum ' (Ciaconius, ' Vitae et res gestae
pontificum,' etc. IV, 389).

u Roma antica e moderna, presso Giacomo Fei, 1653.

quando il papa sta a Monte Cavallo.' ■ The
pope himself built and bought several houses in
the neighbourhood to provide for his familia. u

First of all the mighty nephew of the pope,
Cardinal Scipio Caffarelli- Borghese, one of the
most liberal art-patrons of his time, whom the
Romans used to call ' delicium urbis, 15 wanted
now besides his magnificent palace on the Ripetta,
a comfortable summer residence on the Monte-
cavallo. He bought the ground from the dukes
of Altaemps, 16 had the ruins of the Thermae
Constantinianae demolished, 17 and a new sump-
tuous palace built by the Borghese family
architect, Flaminio Ponzio. Before the work was
finished Flaminio died, and was replaced by the
Fleming Jan Varzant ia and the Comasque Carlo
Maderna. 19 The wall-paintings were entrusted to
Lodovico Cigoli, 20 Antonio Tempesta, 21 Guido
Reni 22 and Paul Bril. Afterwards, under the
next proprietor, 23 the inner disposition of the
ground floor was changed, and part of the paint-
ings had to be destroyed ; they were replaced by
paintings executed by Agostino Tassi and Orazio
Gentileschi. 24 Thus from the paintings of the
first period nothing was left, except the frescoes in

u Ciaconius, 1. c. IV, 3S4. ' Maphaeorum aedibus Datariae
adscriptis ' (this house lay evidently on the west side of the
papal palace in the modern Via della Dataria). The ' Aedes
quas olim in Quirinali clivo monachi Benedictini extruxerant '
were bought too and used for the ' scuderia.'

15 Ciaconius, IV, 401.

16 A German family. One of them, Marcus Sitticus, had been
archbishop of Salzburg. Passeri, 1. c. page 68, says that Card.
Scipio bought the place from the Altaemps family ; the same
statement in the ' ritratto di Roma ' (in Roma, per il Mascardi,
1638), only in the edition of 1652 (presso Filippo de' Rossi) I
find : ' II palazzo . . . fabricato da Scip. Card. Borghese . . .
vtniuto a Gio. Angelo Duca Altaemps. . .'

!" Little pieces of antique fresco-decoration are still to be
seen in the picture gallery in the ' casino dell' Aurora.' Cf.
the reproduction on Plate XIII of Wickhoff s ' Roman Art '
(London: Heinemann, 1900). Part of the statues found during
the excavation of the ground came on the Capitol (Titi, descri-
zione delle pitture sculture, etc. Rome 1783, page 282), partly
they remained to decorate the new palace (see below).

13 The builder of the Villa Borghese. Cf. Baglione, 1. c. page
176.

19 Ibid, page 30S. w Ibid, page 154.

21 Ibid, page 315. 22 Passeri, 1. c. page 68.

23 After Paul V's death Card. Scipio had no more interest to
live so close to the papal residence. Card. Guido Bentivoglio,
having just returned (1621) from his Parisian legacy, bought the
palace from him. Constrained by his enormous debts (Ciac-
conius, 1. c. IV, 455) he was forced a few years afterwards to
sell the palace for 70,000 scudi to Card. Giulio Mazarin (Ciac-
conius, IV, 615). Mazarin's sister, married to principe Lorenzo
Mancini, inherited it from him, and from the Mancini family it
came to the Tuscan house of the Rospigliosi, dukes of Zagarola.
Part of it now belongs to the principi Pallavicini.

24 The pictures by Tassi will be treated in my ' History of
Decorative Landscape Painting in Italy.' Reproductions of
three paintings from the remaining ceilings by Orazio are given on
Plate II, partly because of their high artistic qualities, partly be-
cause they might have a special interest for the English con-'
noisseur, as Orazio lived from 1626 till 1647 in London as court
painter of Charles I, and executed, among other things, some
painted ceilings at Greenwich. Cf. Walpole's 'Anecdotes of Paint-
ing in England.' Giovanni da S. Giovanni is said (Baldinucci,
IV, 231, seq.) to have also painted in the palace by order of
Guido Bentivoglio, a fresco representing the Chariot of Night.
I neither know where this picture was, nor what became of it,
nor if the whole romantic story related by B. is true.

- — »,.•*-

i»

PLATE I. PRESCO-WORK BY GUIDO
REN] AND PAUL BRIL I\ THE ROSPI-
GLIOSI PAL \( E, ROME f

zAn Untyiown Fresco-wor^ by Guido Reni

the well-known Casino dell' Aurora towards the
Via del Quirinale, and the painted vault of a little
open gallery at the back front of the palace : ' una
loggietta,' says Baglione, 25 ' dentro del giardino
verso la via che guarda all' horto di S. Agata,' 26
which afterwards was closed towards the garden,
and thus turned into a little cabinet. That
room is now entered through a great hall, which
opens on the same part of the garden, deco-
rated at present with a stucco decoration in pale
blue and white of much later origin, and with
some antique statues. 27 This room may be meant
by Baglione, 28 when he relates that Cigoli painted
for Cardinal Scipio Borghese in his palace, after-
wards sold to the Bentivogli ' una loggia nel giar-
dino e vi rappresento la favola di Psyche.' 29

The above-mentioned little gallery, of which we
have now to treat, is not quite rectangular in its
ground plan. Towards the garden it once opened
through three open arches supported by four
columns ; on either side of these open arches were
two blind ones, two similar ones closed both ends
of the gallery, and the inner wall was divided into
five corresponding arches. Several doors — now
there is only one left — seem to have led into the
inner apartments. The rest of the walls may have
been decorated with white gesso work, or the
usual pale grottesco paintings. Now the walls are
clothed with modern wall paper.

Baglione mentions the room in Paul Bril's life

in the following terms : —

Vi ha rappresentato col suo penello una pergolata d'uve diverse
con varii animali dal naturale assai belli ed eccellenti. E vi
sono alcuni paesi vaghissimi, che furono da lui felicemente con-
dotti, etc. etc.

Occupied with studies on Paul Bril, 30 it fell to
my charge to view these paintings. To my agree-
able surprise I found on reaching the spot, not.
only Bril's landscapes in the lunettes, and on the
vault the splendidly painted bower (Plate I),
justly admired by Baglione because of its illusion-
ary charm and its clever realistic execution, but
also besides the manifold animals — birds, butter-
flies, spiders, bees, etc. — that enliven its foliage,
some splendid groups of putti, occupied round some
flower pots, which proved at first glance to be the
work of an eminent artist, although, to my know-
ledge, they were not mentioned by any of our
authorities. Deceived by Titi's statement S1 on

25 Page 297.

26 On the ground of the former monastery of St. Agata stands
now the National Bank of Italy.

27 See above, note 17.
; ' Page 154.

29 This hall, although a little smaller, resembles very much
the Psyche gallery — once also called ' loggia ' — in the Villa
Farnesina, and may have been decorated in a similar way. Now
these lost Psyche paintings can never have adorned, as Titi's
confused description (page 283) would make one believe, the
adjacent little gallery, whose ceiling is still covered with the
original paintings (see above), and whose walls cannot have
afiorded sufficient space for such a rich subject.

80 To be published in my ' History of Decorative Landscape
Painting,' where these landscapes, too, will be treated separately.

81 See note 29.

the Psyche pictures by Cigoli, I took them at first
for the work of that skilful painter, although the
marked differences between these paintings and
his other authentic works did not escape me. Only
long after my return from Rome I found on look-
ing through the engraved work of the Bologna
School in the Print-room of the Imperial Library,
a set of engravings, evidently after these frescoes
by Carlo Cesio, 32 with the following title page : —

Angoli dipinti da Guido Reni nella loggia contigua al giardino
del palazzo dell ecc."'» Sig'. Duca Mazarino nel Monte Quirinale
da Carlo Cesio dati in luce da Domenico de Rossi erede di Gio.
Giac. de Rossi in Roma alia Pace con priv . . . etc.

Every print bears a number and the address :
' Guid. Ren. in Virid Mazarino.'

This at last is a testimony which not only foritself
deserves the greatest credit — Cesio (1626-86) being
a younger contemporary of Guido Reni (+ 1641)
— but is also confirmed by ocular evidence in such
a convincing way that one feels almost ashamed
of not having recognized the master's hand with-
out a literary hint. Not indeed in order to corro-
borate Guido's authorship, but only for the sake
of completeness, I should wish to add two other
testimonies lacking in themselves independent
value.

Passeri, in Guido's life, 83 first descriocs the

celebrated Aurora in the garden house, and then

goes on as follows : —

D'intorno a detta (!) loggia in alcuni ripartimenti (note the
lack of precision due to the want of ocular evidence!) vi sono di
sua mano certi putti, li quali per la nobilta della bella idea
possono esser giudicati non solo di regie sembianze, ma d'angeliche
e sovraumane bellezze.

In reality Guido's paintings are confined to the
ceiling, the walls being decorated, but with friezes
by Antonio Tempesta, 34 and four landscapes by
Paul Bril representing the seasons. It is evident
that Passeri knew only Cesio's engravings, and
believed the originals to be in the same place as
the Aurora.

A second set of engravings, not to be found

in the Albertina or in the Imperial print-room,

unknown also to Bartsch, are mentioned in the

anonymous notes appended to the edition of 1783

of Titi's ' Ammaestramento di Pitture, etc.,' on

page 480.

In una loggia del giardino (Rospigliosi) sono molte coppie di
putti, che tengono un vaso di fiori, i quali putti son dipinti da
Guido e intagliati da Pier Antonio Co::a."

The whole decoration comprises ten groups ; as
the subject needs no explanation, a description is
rendered superfluous by our reproductions. The
colouring is very clear yet warm and rich, and

32 Bartsch, No. 81-90.

3:1 Page 68.

81 In 1629 they were shown to Velasquez during his sojourn in
Rome (cf. Iusti. Velasquez, 2nd ed., I., page 241). Baglione
in 1642 says (p. 315) : ' fece nella loggia del palazzo vicino a
Cavalli del Monti Quirinale per il Cardinale Scipione Borghese,
poi de' Signori Bentivogli le due bellissime cavalcate che girano
a foggia di fregio tutta la loggia.'

35 Nothing is known about this engraver. Nagler reproduces
only Titi's above-quoted words.

317

An Unknown Fresco-worJ^ by Guirfo Rcni

like that of the Aurora characteristic of Guido's
' golden ' period. The sky is painted in deep blue.

The date of these frescoes can be approximately
determined. Of course, they were painted about
the same time as the Aurora, which was executed,
if Passeri's chronology of Guido's work may be
trusted, before the paintings in the new papal
chapel (finished 1610) and after his other works
for the Card. Scipione, that is, the Crucifixion for
S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane, 86 and the frescoes in
S. Andrea nearS. Gregorio in Monte Celio (160S),
and in the neighbouring S. Silvia Madre (1609). 37
Thus the paintings in the Rospigliosi palace must
have occupied the rest of the year i6og. S8

The collaboration of Paul Bril and Guido is
easily explained by the fact that they had already
worked together, not only in the casino dell'
Aurora, but already in the year 1599 s9 for Cardinal
Paolo Emilio Sfondrati, the nephew of Gre-
gory XIV, and former papal legate in Bologna, in
S. Cecilia in Trastevere, where Paul Bril had
covered the walls of the saint's ' house ' with decora-
tive landscapes, while Guido had to paint an
altarpiece representing the death of the virgin
martyr. 40

Besides, Bril was acquainted with Tempesta
through the studio of his brother Matteo, as they
had worked together in the third loggiato in the
cortile di S. Damaso in the Vatican, and last, not
least, he was a compatriot of the architect Varzant.

Whether Bril or Reni made the plan for the
whole decoration is of no importance, as the
whole scheme was by no means a new one. The
Romans in the past used to paint the vaults of
their rooms with naturalistic foliage, bowers
animated by birds, etc., as proved by a passage in

3 Now in the Val ery.

' These dates are ascertained by two inscriptions severally

ted; cf. for instance, Ciaconius, 1. c. iv 401.
■' This date has already been fixed for the Aurora by Jani-
tschek in his critical essay on Guido Keni, in Dohme's ' Kunst
tier.'
Fur the date cf. Ciaconius. iv . -rchius S. Caeciliae

acta et transtiberiana basilica, Rome, 1772, an i Bondini, Memorie
storiche di S. Cecilia, Rome,

C:. Passeri, page62. Malvasia. 2nded , II., 12, whocould not

know Passeri's work (published a century after its author's

death), mentions ' due quadri fattial Cardinal Sfondratoede' quali

ne avean fatte le meraviglie il Cavalier d'Arpino . . . ed altri.'

The second picture was beyond all doubt the tondo with the

coronation oi S. Cecilia and S Valerian, still existing on the

e wall. Malvasia means that the pictures were ordered and

execute: ..a and afterwards sent to Rome, an error caused

by a false interpretation of a passage in an autobiographical

by Albani (Malvasia, 2nd ed , II, 151): ' (Guido) . . .

il suo nome non solo per Bologna, ma anche arrh 6 sino

• 1 linal Sfondrati, etc' At

be so famous, and, above all, in

e 'pie had to be on the spot an I to make all kind of

; a commission. Th did the copy of

logna is quite natural, because if Cardinal

et a lese picture he

• ,, painter. That Titi

two pictures to an unknown imitatoi ol

not the outcome of his critical sagacity,

; i he could not find any documen-

■ the author of thi e pictures — Malvasia did

not me:,- yet published — the

the letters of the younger Pliny, 11 and some re-
mains in early Christian catacombs, 42 and in pagan
cemeteries. 43 A late example is to be found in the
mosaics of S. Constanza (phot. Anderson Nos. S3,
84,85,88).

The Quattrocento painters had already brought
to light that decorative scheme from the ' grottos,'
and made the happiest use of it. Giovanni da
Udine, who in 1539 painted a wonderful ceiling of
this kind in the palazzo Grimani in Venice (see
Plate III), and had decorated in 1519 the vaults of
the first loggiato in the Vatican with bowers of
roses, orange and jasmine blossoms (repr. on pi. I
of Gruner's ' Fresco Decorations') was certainly not
the first to do so. Mantegna had already decorated
the cupola of the lost chapel in the Belvedere
with a sort of bower, 44 and combined the latter
with naked putti in different playful positions. 45
This motive, too, familiar as it was to Mantegna
from his earliest pictures, is of classical origin.
To Boethos of Ralchedon, 46 a sculptor of the
beginning of the second century B.C., our literary
tradition ascribes the introduction of children's
figures into art, where it afterwards played such an
important part, especially in the decorative style
of later antiquity. The Florentine sculptors
adopted the motive ; under Donatello's influence
Mantegna introduced it into the decorative scheme
of the Ermitani chapel, and into many a later
work. Indeed, it is striking how closely the above-
mentioned description of his lost vault-painting in
the Belvedere resembles a celebrated work of later
times that could not have remained untouched by
Mantegna's influence. I mean Correggio's Camera
di S. Paolo, a decoration that Guido knew beyond
all doubt, were it only from drawings of his
masters, the brothers Caracci.

After Correggio Titian has had the greatest influ-
ence on putto-painting in the seventeenth century.
His amoretti — the Vienna Academical Gallery,
for instance, contains one 47 — his angels in the

41 Epp.V., 6, 22, he describes a bedroom in his villa as follows : —
'Nee cedit gratiae marmoris ramos incidentesque ramis aves imitata
pictura.'

'- Wilpert, 'The Catacombs,' Plate I (coloured reprod),
Garucci, ' Storia dell' Arte Christiana,' Vol. II., Plate 19.

■" In the VignaCodini, on the vault near the entrance; cf. the
description by Henzen in ' Monumenti ed annali publicati dali'
istituto di Corrispondenza Archeologica,' 1S56, page 19. (Sui
columbari di Vigna Codini) ' Prano le pareti e la volta adornati
di graziose pitturedi fogliami, di grappolid'uva, di fioried ucelli.'
Restored by cav, Ruspi in 1S52 ; cf. also Dollmayr, Schule
Raflaels, Jahrb. der Kunsth. Sammlungen des allerh. Kaiser-
hauses, XVI., 317.

" The same motive in the Madonna della Vittoria, of the
Louvre collection.

J > Taja, descrizione del Vaticano, page 401 ; cf. Chattard, nuova

descrizioned Vat. Ill , 143 ' La picciola cupoletta di essa capella

itadi alcuni finti spartimenti di figura tonda tra stintreaiatt

insieme a medo di una tngraticclata interrotta da quindici putti,

che tengono festoni.'

i lanskeVid. SeKk. Porhandl., 1904, page 73 and Herzog,
Jahreshefte des k. k. Osterreichischen archaeol. Instituts, 1903.
page j 1 5.

<; Phot, by Lowy, Vienna. It is a pity that this certainly
genuine work is not contained in the 'complete' edition of
'Tizians Gi u Fischl, Stuttgart-Leipzig, 1904.

RAPE I IF AMPUI'IKITE

THE RAPE OF EUROPA

PLATE 11 CEILINGS BY ORAZIO
GENTILESCHI, IM THE ROSP1
GLIOSI PALACE, ROME

L^'

N Of INK

' i I . I . : 1:11 liu ri.,1 li isl I'M All I I 'lit

zAn Unknown Fresco-worJ^ by Guido Reni

Assunta picture, and above all his Triumph of
Venus in the Prado, formerly in the Villa Ludovisi
in Rome, were the models imitated by Guido, as
well as later on by Nicholas Poussin, Francesco
Fiammingo, 43 and Rubens.

Besides, the direct influence of classical art is
evident. As the ' horae ' in the Aurora picture are
copied from the famous Borghese dancers, 49 so he
imitated in a picture representing the infant Christ
asleep over the Holy Cross 60 a statuette of that
familiar type well known to the art historian by the
story of Michael Angelo's pseudo-antique Cupid.
One of our putti — the left one in No. 3 — resem-
bles in its position one of those frequently occurring
' hypnos ' types, with crossed legs, slightly-bent
head, TrpoXofilu cV^on*, as Philostratus says in his
' Comus.'

Maybe that Guido also strove to emulate
Raphael's, or rather say Giulio Romano's putti,
holding the symbols of the different gods in the
pendentives of the Farnesina hall.

In any case, it is a fact that this artistic problem
occupied him more than ever in these years. He
revels in ever-new variations of the motive as well
in S. Silvia Madre 61 as in the Quirinal chapel and,
after his precipitate return to Bologna, in the
Palazzo Zani. 62 All these frescoes, some pictures,
like the youthful Bacchus in the Pitti, that merry
putto in the Dresden Gallery, or the recumbent
child with the flying bird once in Diisseldorf, 53
some of Guido's own engravings 64 and of his
drawings engraved by other artists, 65 form together
with the Rospigliosi putti a distinct group in
Guido's work, which shows by its serene bright-
ness and harmonious beauty the closest connexion
with the Aurora : pictures of a happy springtime
in his life which he has never surpassed nor even
equalled.

* 8 Cf. Passeri, pages S6 and 92, Bellori, Vite dei pittori, etc.,
page 160. One of Poussin's drawings after the ' Triumph of
Venus ' is kept in the Albertina.

- 19 This relief, called ' the most beautiful of the whole world '
by Winckelmann (cf. Iusti.\Vinckelmann,2nded., Vol.11, page 20),
had already inspired Mantegna in his Parnasse, Raphael in his
drawing for the Chigi monument in S. Maria del Popolo (cf.
E. Loewy, Archivio storico dell' arte, Serie II, anno II, fasc. IV),
his pupils in the Vatican loggia (cf. Dollmayr, Werkstatte
Raphaels, page 74), etc., etc.

5U I know the picture only by the numerous engravings. A
similar one with a skull and an hour-glass has been engraved by
Fr. Pilsen under the title ' Dallacuna alia tomba eun breve passo.'

41 Phot. Moscioni Nos. 4,412, 4,413 ; Anderson 2,308-2,314.

51 The original is in the Albertina collection, and bears an old
ink inscription : ' Guido Reni fee. in Bologna.' The motive is
taken from classical paintings. Cf. for instance Bellori, Sepol-
cro dei Nasoni, plate No. 26.

53 Engraved by P. T. Rutten, 1785. The Dusseldorf gallery is
now in the Pinacothek in Munich, but this picture is not
contained in the catalogue. A similar one was reproduced by
Felice Guasconi in stipple engraving after an original ' inaedibus
Andreae Taliacarnii patritii Genuensis.'

i4 Bartsch.Nos. 12, 13, and 18. From the last once very popular
print exist two etats and a lot of copies. I know one by Flaminio
Torre, one signed G. R. F. with a landscape (perhaps a third
itat), a reverse copy without the landscape, another by Stefano
della Bella, one by Brechtel (exc. Fred, de Widt).

55 Lorenzo Loli B. 20-24 '■ El. Sirani B. 19, 23, 26 ; Geron. Rossi
B.5.

Preparatory drawings for these frescoes I cannot
assign, although they may still exist. In Viennese
collections there are none. That they once existed
is proved by two engravings by Ciamberlano 66
(Bartsch, Nos. 21 and 27) and one by Scarsello
(Bartsch, No. 5). The former belong to a series
representing angels with the instruments of the
Passion. 57 Two of them are signed ' Guid. Ren.
inv.,' and directly copied from two of the Rospi-
gliosi putti (B. 21 after the left figure in the
group Cesio No. 3, B. 27 after the left figure in
Cesio No. 6). Scarsello's print (B. 5) shows some
putti in different decorative and playful positions.
The one on the extreme right is composed with
regard to the boundary line of a pendentive, still
visible in the engraving. Very probably the
original was an afterwards rejected drawing for
the Rospigliosi loggia. 68

In any case, these engravings, together with
those of Cesio, Passeri's already quoted judgement,
and the fact that Guido's paintings alone were
spared in the great restoration of the palace under
Cardinal Bentivoglio, prove the high esteem in
which this work was held by the contemporaries.
The later oblivion was surely the effect of mere
outward circumstances. Indeed, the estimation
of works such as the Aurora and our putti is not
subject to any future change of taste. There
were always, and there will always be, people who
enjoy the innate grace and sweet beauty of such
creations, but there were always people, and there
are still, whose longing for individual reality, life,
and strength is too eager to allow them to enjoy
those 'divine ideas' and 'celestial visions' of the
' Bolognese Apelles 'which enraptured the Cavalier
Marini, and inspired some of his most affected
sonnets. I do not believe that Michael Angelo da
Caravaggio wanted to kill Guido Reni, but he
heartily despised him, both as a man and an
artist. Indeed, this highly gifted man was as
peevish and conceited as a woman, and we must
not forget that contemporary gossip made fun of
his chastity. 69

The most ardent admirers and most faithful
followers of his art and taste were two women,
Artemisia Gentileschi and Elisabetta Sirani. The
master himself, genial and charming as he was,
had not much of a man about him.

5° Luca C. da Urbino ; the dates of his life are not known.
He worked in Rome between 1599 and 1641.

5 ^ Title: "Jesus Christi domini nostri passionis mysteria ' ;
a very popular devotional subject, which draws its origin from
the Speculum humanae salvationis ; in the fifteenth century
frequently employed in pictures of the Virgin, for instance in the
pseudo-Mantegnesque Madonna of the Berlin Gallery, and in an
altarpiece of the Murano studio in S. Pantaleone in Venice.

59 Malvasia 2. II, 24, already tells us that G's. drawings were
eagerly coveted by other artists, especially by engravers : ' Gli
tagliarono all' aqua forte le prime bozze, capaci di pentimento e
mutazione . . . senza fargliene un semplice motto.'

59 Malvasia, 2nd ed., II, 53, ' fu communemente tenuto per ver-
gine . . . essendosi sempre mostrato un marmo alia presenza
e contemplazione di tante Celle giovani, che le servirono di
modelli.'

323

NOTES ON SOME RECENTLY-EXHIBITED PICTURES OF THE

BRITISH SCHOOL
J* BY C. J. HOLMESJW»

I AST year the disposal of Mr.

• Orrocks's Collection was the

1/ "V^OvVwVhief feature of the season for

(1 /(3\Lij /students and collectors of the
I' l\>w_^53'( wor l <s °f the British School.
4n a note on that Collection
r in The Burlington Magazine
for July 1904, an attempt was
madetofacesomeof the critical problems suggested.
The Huth and Tweedmouth sales coinciding
with the exhibition of Mr. Staats Forbes's pic-
tures at the Grafton Gallery have brought to-
gether for the moment an even more important
aggregate of pictures, and in spite of the prevalent
depression of business the prices obtained have in
many cases been the highest on record.

In no case was the advance in value more
remarkable than in that of Hogarth. Raeburn
was helped by the fashionable craze for eighteenth-
century female portraits. Morland instinctively
appeals to the English mind in virtue of the sub-
jects which he painted, but the most high-priced
of the Hogarths was The Assembly at Wanstead
House (Tweedmouth, 23), which had neither the
alluring graces of pretty femininity, nor the
sporting interest of a picture of pigs and donkeys.
It must therefore have triumphed by sheer fine
painting and rich colour. The Taste in High Life
(Huth, 104) was slightly more dry in texture,
but was so splendidly typical of Hogarth the
satirist as to deserve even more honour than it
received. Two other pictures attributed to Ho-
garth presented really difficult problems. The
Beggars' Opera (Huth, 103) was one of several
versions of the subject, another of which had
appeared in the Capel Cure sale (84). The Capel
Cure picture, though the principal figures were
drastically repainted, was a most characteristic
specimen of Hogarth's work, and the Huth pic-
ture did not emerge well from the comparison,
since, though in fine condition, the handling
throughout was less characteristic and emphatic.
Hogarth is said to have painted the picture in
1729, that is say a year later than the ripe and
full-blooded Assembly at Wanstead House. How
comes it then that the Dudley Woodbridge and
Captain Holland (Huth, 105), which is later
still, being dated 1730, should be so timid, stiff,
and immature ? The picture is evidently a
work of Hogarth's time, and has a short pedigree,
but we may wonder how his broad and summary
brush could have tickled up those polished pink
faces, and worked throughout with so much hesi-
tation and tightness. The actual signature was
not convincing, so the question of the picture's
authorship ought perhaps to remain an open one.

The landscapes by Gainsborough were not
important. The Bay Scene from the Cartwright

collection (100) was similar to the exquisite oval
picture in Sir Charles Tennant's possession, but
appeared to have been finished by a looser and
weaker hand, perhaps that of Gainsborough
Dupont. The Gainsborough portraits, however,
in the Huth collection were magnificent. That
of the handsome dancer, Mr. Vestris, which by
the courtesy of the fortunate owner, Mr. Asher
Wertheimer, is reproduced as frontispiece to the
present number of The Burlington Magazine, 1
rightly took precedence among them. It was
rumoured that the portrait had been cut down to
its present size and shape, and that the back-
ground had been retouched, but the painting itself
was the best rebuff to its detractors, being at once
a singularly fine example of Gainsborough's
feeling for male beauty, and a most perfect and
masterly picture. If Mr. Vestris illustrated
Gainsborough's most intimate and peculiar gifts
the other portraits in the Huth sale served equally
well to illustrate his variety. As the chalk draw-
ing (8) summed up the opulent graces of the
Duchess of Devonshire, so the Mrs. Burroughs
(99) summed up the frail nobility of old age ;
while in the portrait of an exceedingly formidable
lady (97) the artist faced one of those problems
with which Mr. Sargent has made us familiar, the
turning of some amazing sitter into a fine picture
by accepting and insisting upon awkward facts.

Lack of space makes it impossible to discuss
the numerous works by or attributed to Reynolds.
The noticeable resemblance to Cotes in the
portraits of Miss Anne Dutton (Tweedmouth, 44)
and Miss Milles (Cartwright, 84) may perhaps be
due to the employment of Peter Toms, who was
drapery painter to both masters. No better
instance of the difference in value which fashion
has made between male and female portraits could
be given than the fact that the splendid portrait of
Reynolds himself (Huth, 124) fetched far less than
the studio piece Lady Amelia Spencer (125), or
the genuine but much restored version of Sim-
plicity (Tweedmouth, 45), costing hardly more
than the vivid study in the Cartwright collection
(112). One other Reynolds portrait, that of Mrs.
Martin (Tweedmouth, 45), deserved attention on
account of its close resemblance in style to the
fine three-quarter length of a lady in a white dress,
which formed one of the attractions and the prob-
lems of Messrs. Agnew's show of old masters in
(if I remember rightly) 1903. Its technique was so
like that of Romney that the work was ascribed to
him by many authorities, but the Tweedmouth
Mrs. Martin indicates that Messrs. Agnew's attri-
bution to Reynolds was correct.

The examples of Romney, Raeburn, and Hopp-
ner were almost all well-known and characteristic
1 Page 256.

324

PLATE I. LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURES,
BY JOHN CEOME; IN THE POSSESSION
OF MESSRS. T. AGNEW AND SONS.

Recently-Exhibited Pictures of the British School

works. Since they have received quite their due
share of appreciation the)' need not be discussed
here. The finely coloured if rather weakly drawn
royal group by Stothard (Huth, 126), with one or
two smaller works in the Tweedmouth sale, such
as the fresh and pleasant sketch of two children
by Allan Ramsay (40), which might almost have
been the work of some good contemporary French-
man, and a charming work by Kneller (27), were
among the best of the less important things.
The delightful picture by Cosway and Hodges (22)
had a certain interest apart from its attractiveness.
Hodges was the best of Wilson's pupils, as the
astonishingly modern-looking landscape might in-
dicate ; the sky, indeed, actually anticipates
Bonington in its freedom, and there can be little
doubt that his works frequently pass under the
name of his master. The peculiar use of black
touches or black outlines in his foregrounds is
characteristic of his work, which lacks the ' fat-
ness ' of pigment found in Wilson, and more
nearly resembles water-colour painting. Hodges
must have been over forty when he painted the
Tweedmouth picture, which thus represents his
mature style; the View of Ludlow at South
Kensington, dated some ten years earlier, shows a
much closer approach to the manner of Wilson.
Morland has rarely shown to such advantage in
the sale room, and the high prices paid were paid
for specimens that might be matched but could
hardly be surpassed. It was interesting to note,
however, that a singularly perfect specimen of
Ibbetson (Huth, 108) was hardly distinguishable
in technique from a highly-finished little Morland
(Huth, 117) which hung near it.

The appearance of three absolutely genuine
works by the elder Crome in the Huth collection
was something of an event, for Crome has been so
industriously imitated that at least a hundred
spurious pictures come into the sale room for
every authentic one. Of these works the most
important by far was the large Landscape with
Figures (Huth, 44), which by the courtesy of the
owners, Messrs. Thomas Agnew and Sons, I am
permitted to reproduce. 2 Since these notes were
made it is said that doubt has been cast upon the
picture in certain quarters. Doubt was seldom
less justified. Even the one fault of this elaborate
picture tells in its favour, for its slightly cold and
academic air is as absolutely characteristic of
Crome's mind at one period of his development
as the actual handling everywhere is characteristic
of his brush. The picture must date from about
the year 181 5, when Crome was for a time diverted
from his broader natural manner by having his
thoughts directed to Hobbema and the Dutch
masters, a diversion which, to judge from his
etchings, must have begun before his visit to Paris
in 1814. Of this phase of Crome's art, which is
unrepresented in the National Gallery, Mr. Huth's
5 Plate I, page 325.

picture is a thoroughly typical specimen. The
View of Norwich (45) contained some fine passages,
but its effect was damaged by a certain pettiness
in the treatment of the sky, and it was a far less
attractive picture than the View on the Yare (46),
a work of similar date and technique to the famous
Winimillva the National Gallery. No. 46 was one
of the most charming specimens of Crome's work
on a small scale that exists, blending the breadth
of his early style with the delicacy of his mature
one, and designed with that peculiar feeling for
spaciousness that gives him his lofty place among
landscape painters.

No Crome in the Staats-Forbes collection could
be quite compared with this for quality, though
several of the works attributed to him were ex-
cellent. Taking them in order, we begin with
the Norgate Chrome (sic), No. 288, a genuine
picture covered with a needless amount of varnish.
No. 294 was one of several versions of the subject,
superior to any I have seen, but still heavy in
effect and petty in touch, though quite skilful in
places. It was possibly a work by John Berney
Crome done under his father's eye from one of his
designs. The Mousehold House (296) was a puz-
zling picture, probably executed by Crome about
1S06, since it shows traces both of the style of
Wilson and of pictures like Gainsborough's Forest.
No. 297 was also genuine, and looked like a latish
work done from an earlier study in the Lake
District. No. 302, however, was not a Crome at
all, but an excellent and typical example of Stark.
Nor was it possible to accept No. 322 as coming
from Crome's hand, although it appeared to be a
work of the Norwich school, and might well have
been painted by some such artist as Middleton.
No. 329, too, Front of the New Mills, Norwich,
was obviously not by Crome, but was an early
work of David Hodgson adapted from the large
etching of the subject. Hodgson's style is easily
recognizable, and several of his works, mostly
later in date than the Staats-Forbes picture, were
sold at Christie's a couple of months ago. No. 334
was a sound and genuine sketch of Crome's last
years, but the Landscape with Windmill (335)
seemed to be an excellent early work by that most
persistent of Crome forgers, the famous ' Old
Paul,' who in youth was as capable as he was
afterwards prolific.

In dealing with Crome it is necessary to keep
dates in mind, because his style within certain
limits varied greatly. Such a precaution is less
necessary in the case of minor men ; though with
Stark the difference in quality between a fine early
picture such as the Loading Timber (289), and
later works, such as No. 305, is immense. No. 290
was a very good specimen of Stark's chief fol-
lower, S. D. Colkitt, signed and dated 1801, and
painted in collaboration with Bristow, who was
responsible for three other pictures (306, 307, 308)
on the same wall. The single work by George

327

Recently-Exhibited Pictures of the British School

Vincent (295) completed the tale of the Norwich
pictures with the exception of Cotman's Cottage at
St. Albans, a beautiful piece of painting which, as
it has already been discussed and reproduced in
The Burlington Magazine (Jan. 1904), need not
be described again.

A somewhat troublesome problem is suggested
by No. 301, described in the catalogue A 71 Autumn
Evening, R. P. Bonnington (sic). This work ap-
pears to be identical with one which was engraved
by R. Wallis many years ago, and published in
the Art Journal as a work of Turner with the title
On the Thames. In both print and picture there is
the same air of heaviness and the same poor
drawing of branches and foliage. In favour of the
ascription to Turner the clever painting of the
house, the sky, and one or two passages in the
foreground might be quoted, in addition to the
fact that Wallis had engraved much of Turner's
genuine work, and should have been able to tell
an original from an imitation. On the other hand
though Turner's workmanship varies considerably,
and the dullness of the picture is therefore not in-
compatible with genuineness, especially in an early
work, the structureless drawing of the trees is a
fatal objection to Turner's claim, and since the
whole appears to be the work of one hand, the
idea of a sketch by Turner finished by another
painter cannot be entertained. The very change
of title and authorship shows that the ascription
to Turner was not regarded as a certainty even
after the work was engraved, and it is easy to under-
stand that an engraver if in doubt would not care
to publish his doubts at the risk of losing a com-
mission and displeasing his employers. If the
picture be regarded as an early work by Callcott
all these difficulties vanish, its merits and defects
being at once explained.

Two fine sketches in the Huth sale represented
Constable's art at its best. The Dedham Water-
mill (39) was of course a study for the picture at
South Kensington, and the replica in the posses-
sion of Mr. T. Horrocks Miller. The former of
these was painted in 1820, and this sketch may
therefore be dated a year or two earlier, a date
with which its style exactly corresponds. In
virtue of its swiftness of handling it has a freshness
and spirit which are lacking in both the finished
works. Still more radiant was the rather later
study for the Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's
Garden at South Kensington, one of the very
finest of Constable's large sketches, with a
sky of quite unusual beauty and refinement of
colour.

None of the pictures attributed to Constable in
the Staats-Forbes collection approached the same
standard. The Landscape (291) was a genuine
sketch from nature, apparently near Langham,
and dating about the year 1813. The Surrey Hills
(293), however, was not Constable's at all, but
by some such painter as Willcock or F. W. Watts.

328

No. 311 Dedham Vale, a genuine sketch by Con-
stable, had been finished by another hand. The
whole of the central portion was an excellent and
typical piece of his work, and those acquainted
with his handling will find it easy to trace where
this beginning has been supplemented to make a
saleable composition. The next pictures were
still more unlucky. No. 312 was obviously copied
from the well-known Lucas engraving. The Loch
(sic) between Bcccles and Bungay (313) was a variant
of the picture in the Diploma Gallery, which
represents the lock and bridge by Flatford Mill,
thirty miles or more from Beccles, and with the
whole county of Suffolk lying between. The
Diploma picture hung in the Winter Exhibition
of 1902-3, side by side with Sir Charles Tennant's
version, somewhat to the disadvantage of the
latter work. Yet the Staats-Forbes picture would
suffer even more by such a comparison, and must
without hesitation be ascribed to James Webb.
That versatile painter, rather later in life, was
responsible for another picture in the Grafton
Gallery, the Sunset (326), ascribed (Heaven knows
why !) to Creswick. Webb's imitations of Turner
are so numerous and so well known to collectors
that the use of Creswick's name is inexplicable.
Nor need the two remaining works given to Con-
stable detain us since No. 314 was merely a poor
imitation of Muller, and the Highgate Church (315)
a modern sketch painted at least half a century
after Constable's death. 3

These notes, since they deal largely with pic-
tures whose attributions seem to need reconsidera-
tion, naturally tend to convey a pessimistic im-
pression of the collections with which they deal,
and of the Staats-Forbes collection in particular,
since its main strength lay in French and Dutch
pictures, and works by British masters formed
only a small part of it. Perhaps the most curious
feature of these exhibitions is the absence of any
good picture by Turner, the most prolific of all
our painters, and the appearance of no less than
seven works by Crome, who was one of the least
prolific, although, of course, forgeries and school-
works bearing his name are common enough.
Messrs. Colnaghi's admirable exhibition of Eng-
lish pictures contained nothing by either master,

3 Two or three pictures in the sale at Christie's on June 8 may
also be noticed. The Head of a Gentleman ascribed to Holbein (82)
was, of course, a portrait of the artist himself painted apparently
a year or two before the miniatures in the Buccleuch and Hert-
ford House collections. Though lacking the supreme delicacy
of Holbein's personal touch, this admirable painting must at
least have been executed in his immediate entourage, and was,
therefore, a document of no small value. The picture given to
Cotman (No, 138) was identical in style with those enumerated
by a writer in the Athenaeum (January 31, 1903) as the work of
J.J. Cotman, the second son of the famous painter of that name.
As Cotman's work is also confused with that of his son Miles,
the destinctive manner of both sons has to be remembered.
The Farm Buildings near Norwich given to Crome (155) was
similar in design to a picture formerly at Norwich, painted, it
was said, by one of Crome's numerous amateur pupils and
retouched by him — a statement which may explain several of
the small pictures with which Crome is now credited.

PLATE II. PORTRAIT OF MRS. IRWIN,
BY SIR JOSHUA RE \ Vol. US ; I\ THE
POSSESSION OF MESSRS. P. AND D
LGHI.

Recently-Exhibited Pictures of the British School

so the interesting, if unusual, street scene Win-
chester Cross, dating apparently from about 1800,
at the Carlton Gallery, and the graceful sketch in
Messrs. Shepherds' show (which contained also an
important landscape by Cotman) seem to be the
only oil-paintings by the greatest of English land-
scape painters which have come into the market
recently. Among the interesting portraits at
Messrs. Colnaghi's, that of Mrs. Irwin by Reynolds
deserved more than a casual word of praise. The

fading of the carnations had reduced this exquisite
picture to a uniform silvery tone, without in the
least impairing its charms — charms so subtle that
the reproduction l hardly does them complete
justice. The picture, indeed, in its quiet way was
far more delightful and perfect than the more pre-
tentious works by Reynolds which have recently
been received with such a flourish of trumpets in
the sale-room.

* Hate II, page 329.

J5T* MISCELLANEOUS NOTES ^

NEW ACQUISITION AT BERLIN
An important acquisition has lately been made for
the Berlin Gallery, the more important because
the paintings in question are among those which,
as one would have supposed, the authorities of
the Louvre at Paris would have strained every
nerve to possess, and fragments of them are in
our own National Gallery. Dr. Bode has secured
for Berlin, at the price, it is said, of 400,000 marks,
the two famous paintings by Simon Marmion,
lately in the possession of the Princess of Wied,
and formerly in that of King William II of the
Netherlands.

These two paintings, which represent the life of
St. Bertin, were painted for the abbey of St.
Bertin at St. Omer in Picardy, and formed part
of an altarpiece the central portion of which was
probably carved in wood. They are of the ut-
most importance in the history of painting on
that indefinable borderline between France and
Flanders.

At some period the two finials, containing the
upper portion of each painting, were sawn off in
order to make the remainder of a more amenable
shape. These two fragments passed into the
hands of M. Edmond Beaucousin, at Paris, and
were purchased for the National Gallery in i860.
Those lovers of art who are not actuated by the
mere desire for possession will perhaps hope that
the two fragments may some day be rejoined to
the main portions of the paintings. Meanwhile
they will remain in the National Gallery 'to point
a moral and adorn a tale.'

A PORTRAIT AT OXFORD

The Exhibition of Historical Portraits at Oxford,
which has just closed, has been connected with
the following event of interest.

For some time past the Curators of the Bodleian
Library at Oxford have been engaged, so far as
the limited means at their disposal would permit,
in repairing the valuable collection of historical
portraits in the gallery of the Bodleian, which had
been somewhat unduly neglected in past years.

Among the interesting portraits lately exhibited
at Oxford was the fine full-length portrait of
Dr. John Wallis, Savilian Professor of Geometry,

painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller for Mr. Samuel
Pepys, and presented by Mr. Pepys himself to the
University of Oxford. The expense of restoring
this portrait, which Kneller himself esteemed as
one of his best productions, and its frame in the
original silvered treatment, as given by Mr. Pepys,
has been defrayed by the members of the Samuel
Pepys Club, in pious memory of Mr. Pepys.

HOLBEIN AND HORENBAULT
The sale of Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby's
on June 3 included a paper roll signed at head
and foot by Henry VIII, and containing a list
of New Year's gifts presented to that monarch
on January 1, 1539. Among the persons who
presented gifts are two painters : Hans Holbein
and Luke Horenbaultor Hornebolt of Ghent, and
the medallist and factor of musical instruments,
Michael Mercator of Venloo, of whose history
and works I published an account in 1872. ' These
are the entries : —

'By Hanse Holbyne, a table of the pictour of the princes
grace.'

• By Mighell Marcator, two gunnes.'

' By Lewcas, paynter, a skrene to set afore the fyre, standing
uppon a fote of woode, and the skrene blewe worsted.'

On the reverse the king's gifts are enumerated:
' To Hanse Holbyne, paynter, a gilte cruse with a couer,

Cornelis, weing x oz. qft.'
' To Mighell Marcator, a gilte cuppe with a couer, Morgan,
weing xxiiij oz. di. dl. qrt. Item, a gilte glasse with a
couer, Cornelis, priz. xxv oz. qft di., and a gilte sake,
Cornelis, weing, xxij s. qft., som. lxxij oz. qft.'
' To Lucas, paynter, a gilte cruse with a couer, Cornelis,
weing x oz di.'

W. II. J. w.

A PORTRAIT OF AUGUSTUS
WELBY PUGIN

The interesting portrait of Augustus Welby Pugin,
which is reproduced on page 333, was recently
exhibited at Messrs. Shepherd's Gallery, and,
having been brought to Mr. Lionel Cust's notice,
it was purchased for the National Portrait Gallery.
The portrait represents the great architect at a
comparatively early age ; he can hardly be more
than twenty-one at the most, and may even be
younger since he was a man who always looked
older than he actually was. If we suppose that
1 ' Le Beffroi,' iv, 98-110, Bruges, 1872.

D D

331

A Tortrait of Augustus TVelby Tugin

the portrait was painted when Pugin was about
twenty-one and that it was painted from life its
date would be about 1833. It is just possible that
the portrait is a posthumous one, but this hypo-
thesis is unlikely for several reasons. In the first
place, Mrs. Welby Pugin, who has survived her
husband for more than half a century, had
never heard of the portrait until she saw it in
Messrs. Shepherd's Gallery. Had it been post-
humous, it is most unlikely that it would have
been painted without her knowledge ; on the other
hand, if it was painted from life it would have been
painted several years before she made her hus-
band's acquaintance and some fourteen years
before she married him, so that her ignorance of
its existence would be explained. Moreover the
portrait is far too striking a likeness to make it
probable that it was painted from memory, and
there does not seem to have been any existing
portrait from which the artist could have worked.
Further, an examination of the picture makes it
almost certain that the inscription was painted
subsequently to the portrait ; this, however, might
have been the case even if the portrait were post-
humous.

The picture is painted with remarkable skill and
taste, and the head stands out in bold relief against
the red background. Nothing is known of the
history of the picture or of its painter, but it has
been attributed with considerable probability to
the late Mr. George Richmond, R.A. 2 Not only
does the picture show resemblances to his known
work, but the fact that he was a personal friend of
Pugin makes it quite likely that he painted his
portrait. Richmond, by the way, was Pugin's
senior by three years, but he died only in 1896,
whereas Pugin died in 1852. The only other por-
trait of Pugin in existence is that by the late
Mr. Herbert, R.A., now in Mrs. Pugin's posses-
sion, and it is very satisfactory that the nation has
secured so interesting a memorial of the man to
whom modern English architecture owes more
than to any other. The inscription along the top
of the picture reads : Augustus : welby : north-
more : pugin : r.i. p. On either side of the
head are the dates of Pugin's birth and death, and
the arms of the Pugin family.

R. E. D.

A FRANCOISE DUPARC ?

In the March number of The Burlington
Magazine M. Philippe Auquier published four
paintings by a little-known Marseillaise artist of
the eighteenth century, Francoise Duparc. In
the accompanying article he mentioned the tradi-
tion that she had done the better part of her work
in London, but threw doubt on the legend, and
appealed to English collectors for any traces of her

2 Sir William Richmond, however, has no knowledge that his
father painted a portrait of Pugin, and there seems to be no
record of it.

332

activity in this country. In the April number
Mr. A. B. Chamberlain drew attention to the
appearance in exhibition catalogues of works by
' Mrs. Dupart ' (a possible misprint) and by
' — Duparc,' and the editors renewed M. Auquier's
appeal.

It occurred to me that there was a very close
resemblance between the Marseilles museum pic-
tures and the head of an old woman, the author-
ship of which had puzzled its owner (Mr. Henry
Tonks) and his friends. This picture was bought
at a sale in London a few years ago, and had an
obviously fanciful label attached to it, 'The Artist's
Mother, by Hogarth.' I have compared it care-
fully with the photographs from which the blocks
were made for this Magazine, and so far as one
can judge without seeing the Marseilles originals,
the case for the identity of the painter with the
author of those pictures is convincing. The general
conception of portrait-subject, the character and
expression, pose and dress, agree; the treatment of
forms closely corresponds throughout, and also the
illumination, which is the same in thefivepictures in
its disposition, and in the peculiarity of the reflected
lights. The colour, so far as M. Auquier's notes
go, also corresponds, blue ribbon and white dress,
and the look of the surfaces. The background is
green, and the colour has the effect of simple
glazing over an underpainting. The resemblance
of this head to the old woman in Plate I of
M. Auquier's article 3 is so close that they may be
studies of the same model. Mr. Tonks's picture,
if accepted as a Duparc, does not of course prove
that the lady worked in England; but it gives some
colour to the story, and may possibly be the ' Old
Woman ' of Mr. Chamberlain's citation. In any
case, its accomplishment and shrewd character
would give Francoise Duparc a respectable place
among women painters. D. S. MacColl.

THE FORTHCOMING THIRD GERMAN
EXHIBITION OF APPLIED ART

The two predecessors of this Exhibition, which
promises to be a highly important affair, took place
at Munich in 1876 and 1888.

Originally every manner of artist was at first a
craftsman of some kind, and he had to pass through
all the purgatory of apprenticeship, entrance into
a guild, etc., before he could appear as master.

It was only after the so-called higher arts,
painting and sculpture, were entirely cut adrift
from architecture that the relationship between
the crafts and art was gradually dissolved. The
craftsman went along one path and the artist
along his; each had his own system of education
and his proper schools. If this division resulted
in some loss to the artist, it altogether ruined the
working man's craft, for it finally left him altogether
out of touch with art of any kind. When this
became apparent a general movement arose with
8 Vol. VI, page 479 (March 1905).

6. P

Third German Exhibition of ^Applied *Art

the object of uniting the two factors, art and craft.
Special academies and special museums were
founded ; the expression Kunstgewerbe (literally
Art-craft) was coined, and Applied Art was in
everybody's mind. It was natural that at first
one had recourse to imitating the old times when
the union had not yet been disjointed, and it was
also perhaps natural that people imitated models
rather than the spirit. A new flood of German
Renaissance Decoration ran over all Germany.
What it achieved for better or for worse was shown
at the 1S76 Exhibition.

About the same time the great industrial era
commenced, the age of steam developed into an
age of electricity, and machine manufactory as
opposed to handicraft became our emblem. The
odium of the famous dictum passed upon our
practical industries at Philadelphia in 1876,
1 cheap and poor,' has been thoroughly wiped out
in the course of the last quarter of the nineteenth
century, but it seems to have settled upon the
art-industries. At the point to which Applied
Art had been raised, by 1876 it was delivered over,
bound hand and foot, to the machine manufactory.
The 1888 Exhibition disclosed the fact that not the
slightest progress had been made except in the
direction of cheapness. This had entailed the
ruin of public taste. Perfect stagnation had
ensued ; because there was no longer any demand
for true handicraft, our artists turned entirely aside
from it, and the manufacturing trade had hunted
to death the few ideas that had been handed over
to them.

The great revival of decorative art began with
us in the middle of the nineties. The appearance
of The Studio, which was welcomed in Germany
as loudly as in England, had not a little to do
with calling it forth, as should in justice be said.
Within ten years a remarkable advance has been
made. Evidence of this was given in the German
exhibits at Paris 1900, Turin 1902, and St. Louis
1904, but strangely enough, never as yet in
Germany itself. The third German Exhibition
of Applied Art, to take place at Dresden in 1906,
will furnish occasion for this.

It appears that this Exhibition is being most
carefully prepared. There will be a historical
department containing single masterpieces of han-
dicraft, fine bronzes, bookbindings, porcelain, etc.
of former times. A second feature will be a large
display of farm-house rooms, showing the rural
art of the different provinces. A third set of rooms
will show what has been done in the way of
education : the principles which govern different
schools of Applied Art will be laid down, and the
results attained will be shown. The very large
central hall of the exhibition buildings will be
divided up into two chapels, one arranged for
Catholic, the other for Protestant worship. The
field of religious art is perhaps the one which can
show the least progress in Germany, because the
authorities interested in it are the most conservative
of people. If there has been perhaps some advance
in church architecture within the past decade,
there has been very little in the matter of church
decoration. There is a wide field open here for
improvement and new ideas in the interior equip-
ment of churches, as well as in designs, for the
manifold accessories of divine service. The prin-
cipal exhibit will consist of a large number of
completely furnished rooms, in which the principal
artists of Germany, like Behrens, Riemerschmidt,
Vandevelde, will display their talent, and the best
executing firms (such as the ' Werkstaetten ' at
Dresden, Munich, Stuttgart, etc.) their skill. It
is proposed to arrange a series of shops, which
will in themselves be models of decoration, and
will contain such single products of Applied Art
as cannot be arranged in one of the rooms, or are
exhibited by specialist-artists. Finally, there will
be also a department devoted to industrial art. It
is intended to show here, besides the best products,
the manner of their production. For example,
the visitor will be able to follow the production of
a picture post card in colours from the making
of the original design down to the printing of a
large edition. There will also be a mock cemetery
to show new designs of tombstones and graveyard
decoration.

H. W. S.

J& LETTER TO THE EDITORS^

THE TWEEDMOUTH PICTURES

Gentlemen, — If picture-collectors would realize
how easy it is to detect modern repaints and
restorations, £4,000 would not have been paid at
Christie's recently for Lord Tweedmouth's Sim-
plicity formerly by Sir Joshua Reynolds, now not,
except the general design and a portion of one
hand ; nor £6,000 for Raeburn's portrait partially
by himself, the rest, the larger part, by an unknown
nineteenth or perhaps twentieth-century sign-
painter. Lady Raeburn's portrait has been

handled with more suavity than is customary
among sign-painters, but is nevertheless largely
repainted. The Countess of Bellamont startles
with revelations of hitherto unknown methods in
Sir Joshua Reynolds's treatment of shadows in
drapery and other details, or have we here the
same twentieth-century master ?

It is most instructive to examine with a fairly
strong hand-lens the surface of any retouched
picture. It may be safely asserted that all genuine
pictures of the Reynolds period are cracked, and
a good glass will show up these cracks, and will

335

Letter to the Editors

also show clearly where they are covered, partly
or entirely, by a new layer of paint. I have
even seen a cracked re-painting under which the
different cracks of the original paint could be
discerned. Besides, this new paint is dead and
opaque without the semi-transparency and lustre
of old paint. An honest mend of a hole or a bad

crack has the merit, under the lens, of enhancing
the beauty of untouched parts. But the modern
restorer is fiendish. To disguise mends he spreads
his new paint far around, entirely careless of the
priceless quality which he is obliterating for the
sake of a temporary smugness.

Christiana J. Herringham.

J& ART IN AMERICA J5T*

In the Auction Room
While European sales of art objects are divided
between London and Paris the centre for the sales
in the United States is New York. Important
sales of prints are occasionally held at the Thomas
Galleries in Philadelphia, but otherwise the scat-
tering collections that are brought to the hammer
in that city or in Boston are scarcely worth men-
tioning. The season of 1904-1905 has been a
notable one owing to the fact that three important
private collections of paintings were dispersed
under the auspices of the American art galleries in
New York — the Waggaman, the Kauffman, and
the King. Five dealers risked the chances of the
auction room — Fischhof, Ehrich, Brandus, and
Prinz, at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries, and
Blakeslee at the American Art Galleries. Groups
of paintings by the following deceased American
painters were sold : Robert C. Minor, C. Morgan,
Mcllhenney, Edwin Lord Weeks, and Kruseman
van Elten, at the American Art Galleries, and
Peter Rudell at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries.

Collections other than paintings that have been
sold during the past season at the American Art
Galleries include the art objects belonging to John
Jay Gilbert, of Baltimore, the wonderful collection
of Oriental art objects belonging to Mr. Thomas
Waggaman, of Washington, the Carter collection
of etchings and engravings, the furniture which
formed part of the King collection, and the large
and varied collections of the late Dr. Joseph
Wiener, which included prints, medals, coins,
bric-a-brac, and paintings. Among the dealers'
sales in this line were the Yamanaka collection of
Oriental art objects, the Matsuki collection of
Japanese armour, the Benguiat textiles, and the
A. D. Vorce collection of Oriental art.

The art objects dispersed through the Fifth
Avenue Art Galleries include the Persian Govern-
ment exhibit from the St. Louis Exposition,
several groups of Japanese art objects, furniture
from Ollivier of Paris, and from Herter of New
York, a group of rugs, and some antique glass
and other art objects collected by Azeez Khayat,
a dealer.

On the whole the prices realized were good,
the highest figure being $40,200 paid by Herman
Schaus at the Waggaman sale for the painting
Sheep Coming out of the Forest, by Anton Mauve.
A beaker-shaped vase of the Kiang-Hsi period was
bought by Mr. W. Williams for $2,500, and the

336

highest price among the art objects was realized
when Mr. Charles L. Freer of Detroit paid
$3,100 for a celebrated Japanese screen. The
nine afternoon and three evenings of the Wagga-
man sale realized $341,538. Next in importance
was the David H. King sale, when seventy paint-
ings brought $201,035, ar, d with the furniture and
art objects the total reached was $218,915. The
painting which brought the highest price was a
portrait of the Countess D'Argenson, by Nattier,
for which J. D. Ichenhausen paid $18,000.

Pittsburg
At the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburg, the per-
manent collection is in place in the building
erected a year ago to accommodate the Depart-
ment of Fine Arts during the construction of the
large wing of the Institute, which will contain
galleries devoted to this department and to the
scientific museum.

These temporary quarters consist of three well-
lighted galleries, where about sixty paintings are
hung. Among the important canvases is Edwin
A. Abbey's Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester,
rich in colour and well composed ; The Wreck, a
powerful canvas by Winslow Homer, painted in
1896 and purchased as the beginning of the
Chronological Collection, established by a deed of
trust from Mr. Carnegie, and intended to repre-
sent the progress of painting in America.

The collection is also strong in works by foreign
contemporary painters. Among the French
painters, Dagnan-Bouveret is represented by The
Disciples at Emmaus, a large and important com-
position presented to the Institute by Mr. and
Mrs. Henry C. Frick of Pittsburg, and which
was lent to Buffalo for the initial exhibition at
the Albright Gallery. Bastien-Lepage, Chartran,
Harpignies, Pissarro, Puvis de Chavannes, Raf-
faelli, and others have each signed one or more
good pictures.

The next International Exhibition will be held
from the first week in November to January 1,
1906. The Jury, as usual, is selected by votes of
the exhibitors at the last annual exhibition, and
this year will meet in Pittsburg on October 12.

Cincinnati
It is interesting to watch the growth of the art
interests in the smaller cities. Cincinnati, for
example, has a museum and art school which

Art in America

deserves' the highest praise. It was incorporated
in 1881, and while no support is received from
taxation, the Association, by reiving entirely upon
the liberality of the citizens of Cincinnati, has
erected an attractive building in Eden Park ;
secured over 450 paintings for its permanent col-
lection, together with casts and interesting ex-
amples of the applied arts ; maintains an Art
Academy where advanced instruction is given to
over 400 students in drawing, painting, modelling,
and design, and gives an annual exhibition of
paintings by American artists that ranks as one of
the best of the year.

Much of the success of the Cincinnati Museum
is due to the serious work of the director, J. H.
Guest, and to the staff of the school which includes
such prominent painters as Frank Duveneck,
A.N.A., Thomas S. Noble, L. H. Meakin, and
Vincent Nowottny and the sculptor, Clement
Barnhorn.

The twelfth annual exhibition was held from
May 20 to July 10, and proved of great help to
the students as well as giving much pleasure to
the residents of Cincinnati, whose appreciation for
the best in art is being cultivated by such exhi-
bitions.

But the Museum is not the only art activity of
Cincinnati. The twelfth annual exhibition of the
Cincinnati Art Club was held from May 8 to 20,
and among the seventy-eight paintings shown
there was good work by H. F. Farny and J. H.
Sharp, who paint Indians with knowledge of their
ways; landscapes by L. H. Meakin; and figure
pieces by Leo Mielziner, who is now a resident of
Paris, where he takes an active interest in the
American Art Association.

The art department of the women's club holds
frequent exhibitions, the last being a group of
German lithographs. Two of the men's clubs
have formed art associations for the purpose of
purchasing paintings and other works of art to
decorate their club houses. Emery H.Barton, Esq.,
is president of the Art Association of the Business
Men's Club, and W. W. Taylor, Esq., of that of
the Queen City Club.

This brings us to another phase of the art
activities of Cincinnati. Mr. Taylor is the
manager of the Rookwood Pottery. Started in a
small way by a woman, now Mrs. Bellany Storer,
the making of this artistic pottery has made the
city of Cincinnati famous throughout the world.
While other potteries have been established in
various parts of the United States and are turning
out more or less artistic pieces, it is to Rookwood
that we must turn not only for the earliest of our
potteries but for constant advancement and im-

provement. The making of tiles and other pieces
for use in architecture and interior decoration
gives an opportunity to do practical work, and
recently most artistic mantelpieces, fountains, and
vases have been produced.

Chicago

The most active of all our cities, outside of New
York, is Chicago, and here the art interests are
centred around the Art Institute. The permanent
collections contain much that is of intrinsic as
well as educational value, and we will study these
collections in detail at some other time. In
addition there is a constantly changing temporary
collection, the last one for the season of 1904-5
being the seventeenth annual exhibition of water-
colours, pastels, and miniatures by American artists.
There were 468 numbers, and it was the best ex-
hibition of water-colours for the current year, with
the possible exception of those seen at the Penn-
sylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

The Boston Water-colour Club sent several
works by each of its members, and they were hung
in groups in one of the large rooms. Charles
Woodbury had three of his powerful marines so
full of dash and the spirit of the waves ; seven
canvases represented Maurice Prendergast, whose
charm is in the management of many people seen
as spots of colour; while two portraits by
Mrs. Sarah C. Sears were delicately and sym-
pathetically rendered.

There were a good many works which have been
made for reproductive purposes, and while they
were extremely decorative they completely lacked
the poetry and atmosphere which would make them
suited as daily companions. To this decorative
class belong Mother's Joy by Ellen W. Ahrens,
and Edwin S. Clymer's glaring Decorative Land-
scape. Of all this class of work possibly the most
successful is a cover design by Violet Oakley,
entitled Spring, wherein five figures are well
grouped, and the entire colour scheme consists of
cream and a soft grey-green.

Hugh Breckenridge sent a delightful Autumn
Hills, rich and glowing with the trees in their red
and yellow gowns, yet it was not at all exag-
gerated. Everett L. Bryant has a way of touching
in his French Vaudeville characters which is truly
fascinating ; the Banjo Players is carried farther
than the majority. Mary Cassatt's pastel of a
Mother and Child is one of her very good works ;
while Sergeant Kendall in his Mother and Child
gives us a composition simple, tender, and sym-
pathetic. Of the three clear wash water-colours
by Winslow Homer, the most satisfactory is his
Hauling in Anchor, which is masterly of its kind.

337

J5n BIBLIOGRAPHY Jar*

THE ROYAL ACADEMY
The Royal Academy and its Members. 1768-
1830. By the late J. E. Hodgson, R.A., and
Fred A. Eaton, M.A. Murray, 21s. net.
It is unfortunate that the authors of this hand-
some semi-official publication should have stopped
at the year 1830, and have devoted so much space
to biographical facts that are already stale news,
since a really definite history of the Royal Academy
would be of the greatest value. By their action
they have certainly avoided difficulties, but the
result is of course incomplete. In Mr. Eaton's
preface we are told what share each writer had in
the book, and how on Mr. Hodgson's death his
work was continued and finished by Mr. G. D.
Leslie. Mr. Eaton's account of the Academy
itself is carefully put together. It is interesting to
see how several reforms effected recently were
urged long ago by the broad-minded C. R. Leslie,
and how the opening of Lord Leighton's en-
lightened presidency was signalized by the repay-
ment to the Turner Fund of some £8,000 which
had been appropriated by the general account of
the institution. His notes, too, on the pecuniary
help given to distressed members are really the
most novel feature in the biographies. The lists in
the Appendices are convenient, but that of Hono-
rary Foreign Academicians contains some names
such as Adolf Minzel and Jules Brebon, which are
unfamiliar. Mr. Leslie's section also, if rather
commonplace, is careful and impartial. But one
finds it hard to speak charitably of the part which
must be assigned to Mr. Hodgson. Mr. Hodgson's
own experiences might have preserved him from
gloating over the failure of poor Barry (p. 162) ;
and his official post from such monumental igno-
rance as that displayed in his eulogy of the
Rev. W. Peters (p. 130), or in his sneers at the
first holder of his own professorship (p. 61). The
excellent pictures over whose non-existence he
makes merry have been hanging for years ' on the
line' in one of the most important English public
galleries ! All who are interested in the Royal
Academy will hope that Mr. Eaton will find time
to complete his work, and will wish that Mr.
Leslie had been his associate from the first.

The Royal Academy of Arts : A complete
Dictionary of Contributors and their work
from its foundation in 1769 to 1904. By
Algernon Graves, F.S.A. Vol. I. Henry
Graves and Co. and G. Bell. £2 2s. net.
Mr. Algernon Graves has once more placed
all students of the English school of painting, both
present and future, under a heavy obligation, by
adding one more to the invaluable works of refer-
ence with which his name is associated. In his
preface he relates how this book originated more
than thirty years ago from a small present of wine
and a slippery day. In the convalescence follow-
ing his accident Mr. Graves began to arrange the
exhibitors at the Academy alphabetically. Up to

338

the year 1800 titles were copied word for word ;
after that date titles and quotations were cur-
tailed. Where possible anonymous portraits are
identified, and the marginal notes to Horace
Walpole's Catalogues belonging to Lord Rosebery
have been included. The address from which
each picture was sent is also given, so that the
painters' movements can be traced from year to
year. So far as rough tests go the book appears
to be as impeccable in point of accuracy as it is in
point of completeness. The author has even added
blank pages at the end of each section for the
addition of manuscript notes.

Only by some such description as this is it
possible to convey any idea of the value of the
book, and that value is increased from the fact
that the Academy, for many years after its founda-
tion, included all the best talent of the country,
and its history is almost the history of British
Art during that period. For the last thirty or
forty years that has ceased to be the case, but of
these years records more or less accurate exist.
Mr. Graves's book thus comes to our assistance
just where help is most needed.

Apart from its usefulness as an indispensable
work of reference to every student of English
Painting, the book suggests some interesting
speculations. What, for instance, has happened
to all the pictures, some two hundred in number,
exhibited by George Arnald ? Few collectors of
English pictures could name offhand more than
half-a-dozen works which now bear his name.
The remainder probably pass, with those of men
like the elder Barret, under the more august and
profitable title of Richard Wilson or even of Turner
himself. It is a common fallacy in the criticism of
English painters to have too short a memory for
the unmemorable, just as in some other countries
the lesser lights at the moment seem to be magni-
fied till they outshine the planets. Mr. Graves's
book is exactly what was needed to enable us to
strike the happy balance.

ARCHITECTURE

Nuremberg and its Art to the End of the

Eighteenth Century. By Dr. P. J. Ree.

Translated by G. H. Palmer. Grevel and

Co. 4s. net.
Nuremberg. By H. Uhde-Bernays. Siegle and

Co. is. 6d. net.
If the volume on ' Nuremberg' is a fair sample of
Messrs. Grevel's series of ' Famous Art Cities '
now in course of issue, their publication should be
a great success. Dr. Ree's book is not only
an admirable piece of work, but the clearness and
method of the letterpress are repeated in the
choice and arrangement of the very numerous
and excellent illustrations of the city's sculpture,
architecture, metal-work, and painting. An
occasional uncouth phrase, such as the frequently
repeated 'Barock,' the choice of an aspect of the
Nuremberg Madonna which gives a false idea

Bibliography

of its character, and one or two slips such as that
about the design of the Apollobrunnen, do not
detract much from the merit of a book that is so
thoroughly good and so wonderfully cheap. Mr.
Bernay's book is also good of its kind, but more
personal and emotional. It may be helpful to
visitors who can make only a short stay in
Nuremberg, and should prevent them being
surprised by factory chimneys, but cannot be
compared with Dr. Ree's work either for com-
pleteness or attractiveness.

Italian Architecture : being a brief account
of its Principles and Progress. By J. Wood
Brown. Siegle. is. 6d. net.
Rome as an Art City. By Albert Zacher.
Siegle. is. 6d. net.
These two volumes of the same series of little
monographs present a curious contrast. Mr.
Zacher attempts to tell the story of art in Rome
in detail from the time of the Etruscans to the
present day in the space of ninety-one small pages.
The book is thus a compact mass of names and
dates, diversified here and there with short pas-
sages of ecstatic uncomprehending gush. Mr.
Wood Brown with more wisdom views his subject
broadly, though with all his care he quite fails
to give an adequate account of the architecture of
the Renaissance. The development of the earlier
phases of Italian buildings is handled with con-
siderable skill. The book would have been still
more serviceable to those with little practical
knowledge of architecture if technical points, such
as those discussed on pages 55-8, had been illus-
trated by rough diagrams, but it is distinctly
above the average of its kind.

MISCELLANEOUS

Die Grundzuge der linear perspektivischen
Darstellung in der Kunst der Gebruder
van Eyck und ihrer Schule. i Die per-
spektivische Projektion Von Joseph Kern.
40 pp., 14 plates, and 3 cuts. Leipzig (See-
mann), 1904. 6 m.
Another work on the van Eycks ! some of our
readers will probably exclaim ; surely by this
time, after all that has been written since the
beginning of the last century, there ought not to
be much left unsaid that is worth saying. We
think, however, that it will be found that the pre-
sent work does really bring fresh material of im-
portance that must lead to reconsideration as to
the date and authorship of certain paintings.

When interest in the productions of the early
Netherlandish school was first aroused few persons
were able to study more than a very limited
number of paintings. Hence the attribution of
works to the van Eycks could only be criticized by
few, and thus it came to pass that for a long time
little progress was made in separating their paint-
ings from those by other masters of the fifteenth
century. The documents published by Laborde

in 1849, an d subsequently by Pinchart and others,
cleared up the biography of the brothers to a cer-
tain extent, but even now we have no reliable in-
formation as to either of them before October
1421. My own researches have led to the identi-
fication of the persons represented in several
paintings and to the fixing of the date of their
execution. Photography and retrospective exhi-
bitions have facilitated study and led to much
valuable criticism as to the technical qualities of
the works. Bode, FriedHinder, Seeck, Kammerer,
and Hulin havedistinguished themselves by various
essays. Others have confined their remarks to the
treatment of landscape, or to that of trees and
plants, while the present work is devoted to the ex-
amination of a certain number of paintings solely
with regard to the extent of knowledge of the laws
of linear perspective which they prove their authors
to have possessed at the date of their execution.
Previous writers had confined their remarks to the
consideration of the source from which the van
Eycks derived their knowledge of linear perspective.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle were of opinion that John
did not attain to a thorough knowledge of the
laws of linear perspective, but that his faithful and
minute observation of nature, his perception of
tone and clever handling of colour, enabled him to
represent atmospheric effects and produce in his
pictures the illusion of their being true perspective
views. Nielsen, as a result of his study, came to
the conclusion that John was acquainted with the
perspective laws of distance, and observed them
in his works ; that he derived his knowledge from
the study of Euclid and private speculation, and
was not indebted to any Italian source.

As far as I am aware, no one before the author
of the present work has pushed the inquiry further.
M. Kern, however, has analyzed a certain number
of works by or attributed to Melchior Broederlam,
the van Eycks, and Peter Christus, and gives a
detailed description of the results illustrated by
diagrams. He shows that the laws of linear per-
spective have been correctly observed in the repre-
sentation of the interior of the Temple in the
Presentation by Broederlam ; in the design of the
canopied niche in which St. Barbara stands in
the Calvary picture of the Tanners' Gild at
St. Saviour's, Bruges ; in that of the tomb in the
Richmond picture of the three Marys, of the
pavement in the three upper panels of the Ghent
polyptych, and of the pavement and ceiling of the
Virgin's chamber on the exterior. He also de-
monstrates that in 1434 John did not follow the
laws of linear perspective in their application to
the room in which John Arnolfini and his bride
are standing, and that at that time he evidently
had no knowledge of the starting point of collec-
tive orthogonals. Did he attain to a full know-
ledge before his death in 1441 ? The only known
authentic work of large dimensions which can
lead to a decision on this point is his last picture,

339

Bibliography

the Ypres triptych belonging to M. Helleputte, and
this M. Kern has unfortunately not examined.
There is, of course, the Louvre altarpiece repre-
senting the Chancellor Rolin kneeling before Our
Lady and Child, but opinions differ as to the
authorship and date of this work, some setting this
as early as 1422, others as late as 1437. M. Kern
shows that if painted by John it cannot have been
designed before 1436. Rolin was born in 1376,
and, judging by his portrait, 1 cannot have been
more than fifty when it was painted ; it follows
that the picture dates from about 1426, and that
John was not its author. The somewhat similar
picture representingtheCarthusian Herman Steen-
ken protected by St. Barbara kneeling before Our
Lady and Child accompanied by St. Anne (accord-
ing to others, St. Elisabeth of Thuringia) must
have been painted before 1428, probably some
years earlier, as Steenken died April 28, 1428.

The Berlin picture representing the same Car-
thusian presented to Our Lady by St. Barbara is
attributed by M. Kern to Peter Christus, and
assigned to 1436, or a later date. As to the laws
of perspective distance, he agrees with other
writers that neither the van Eycks nor Peter
Christus attained to a complete knowledge of
them. W. H. J. W.

Drawings by Old Masters of the Dutch
and Flemish Schools in the Royal Col-
lection at Amsterdam. Part V. Williams
and Norgate. £1 14s. net.
The fifth part of the sumptuous publication
appeals perhaps more to students of the Dutch
School than to students of art in general. Two
drawings, however, are of exceptional interest.
The fine study of A Farmyard by Jan Lievens
proves that the inspiration of Rembrandt's land-
scapes was not inherited by Philips de Koninck
only, while the study of A Gentleman Saluting, by
Cornelius Troost, ' The Dutch Watteau,' is an
unusually good specimen of the spirited and grace-
ful draughtsmanship by which that master earned
his nickname. The coloured reproductions, as in
the previous parts, are wonderfully good.
Old Masters and New. By Kenyon Cox.

Fox, Duffield & Co. New York.
That painters do not more frequently write upon
art is unfortunate both for the public, who hear
too little of the painter's side of painting, and for
painters themselves, since when their student days
are over, if not earlier, they are apt to forget that
other painters have existed. Mr. Kenyon Cox's
series of essays covers a wide field, since the first
deals with sculptors of the early Italian Renais-
sance and the last with St. Gaudens. The articles
on Puvis de Chavannes and Paul Baudry are
specially good, but the whole book is fresh, sen-
sible, and thoroughly readable. Now and then it
1 Rolin's portrait in the hospital at Bedune, painted by Roger
De la Pasture in or before 1447, shows him to have been then at
least twenty years older than in the Louvre picture.

340

contains some startling remarks such as the state-
ment that Sargent is a draughtsman, while Rem-
brandt was not. The author in fact is to some
extent biassed by the modern tendency to depre-
ciate creativeness and emphasis in favour of the
faculty of representation, in reality a much
commoner talent.

Early Works of Titian. By Malcolm Bell.

Newnes. 3s. 6d. net. Filippino Lippi.

By P. G. Konody. Newnes. 3s. 6d. net.
Two more volumes of Messrs. Newnes' handy
series of reproductions. Of the two, that on
Filippino is distinctly the more careful, though
neither is free from mistakes. The three frescoes
by Titian in the Scuola del Santo are so well
known that Mr. Bell's mistake in omitting them
all and reproducing one which is certainly not by
Titian is curious to say the least of it.

The Mosaic. No. I. Oxford; Holywell Press.
This little medley of essays in poetry and prose
will doubtless recall pleasant memories to those
who in earlier days have themselves embarked
upon some such adventure. The opinions of the
art critic and the methods of the writer of the short
story seem alike needlessly sweeping, but all the
contributors have some literary feeling and some
faculty of observation, and will no doubt be heard
of again.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Early Works of Titian. By Malcolm Bell. George Newnes,

Ltd. 3s. 6d. net.
Filippino Lippi. By P. G. Konody. George Newnes, Ltd.

3s. 6d. net.
Islamische Tongefasze aus Mesopotamien. By Friedrich

Sarre. G. Grot^sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.
The Royal Academy and Its Members. By the late J. E.

Hodgson, R.A. and Fred A. Eaton, M.A. John Murray.

21s. net.
Un Bas-Relief de Bronze. By Etienne Michon. Ernest

Leroux, Paris.
Bibliothek Eugen Muentz. Joseph Baer and Co., Frankfort-

am-Main.
Original Drawings of the Dutch and Flemish School;

Part 5. Williams and Norgate. £1 14s. net.
History of Ancient Pottery. In two vols. By H. B. Wal-
ters. John Murray. 63s. net.
Beadtifdl Wales. Painted by Robert Fowler ; described by

Edward Thomas. A. and C. Black. 20s. net.
Nuremberg and its Art to the End of the Eighteenth

Century. By Dr. P. J. Ree ; translated by G. H. Palmer.

Grevel and Co. 4s. net.
Nuremberg. By H. Uhde-Bernays. Siegle and Co. is. 6d.

net.
Ivories. By Alfred Maskell. Methuen and Co. 25s. net.
Chefs-D'CEuvre D'Art Japonais. By Gaston Migeon.

D. A. Longuet, Paris.
The £30,000 Portrait and the Discovery of a Long Lost

Italian Portrait. A Criticism. By George Washington

Moon, Hon.F.R.S.L. Farncombe's Library. 2s. 6d. net.
Mr. Whistler's Lithographs: The Catalogue. By Thomas

R. Way. London: G. Bell and Sons. New York: H. ■

Wunderlich and Co. 10s. 6d. net.
Little Books on Art — Raphael. By A. R. Dryhurst.

Methuen and Co. 2s. 6d. net.
L'Aete in Val di Nievole. By Carlo Stiavelli Francesco

Lumachi, Florence. 2.50 lire.
Handizeichnungen Schweizerischer Meister desXV-XVIII

Jahrhunderts. Part 2. Basel, Helbing, and Lichten-

hahn.

/,'/■ t/u ' ,i/,; -III, ■ ■ ' < ,■/ f/l

■ 9m //a ■

ART IN AMERICA-IMPORTANT NOTICE

The Editors of The Burlington Magazine have much pleasure
in announcing that they have arranged for the section, 'Art in
America,' to be edited in future by Mr. Frank J. Mather,
Junr., of the New York Evening Post, beginning with the
September Number.

jgK EDITORIAL ARTICLE j&
THE DIRECTORS OF OUR PUBLIC GALLERIES

E have referred more
than once to the va-
cant Directorships of
the National Gallery
and South Kensing-
ton Museum, and in
again calling atten-
tion to these vacancies we do so in no spi-
rit of impatience. A busy Government
may, from pressure of work as much as
from the desire to do right, be compelled
to decide slowly, yet we trust that the de-
cision as to these two appointments will not
be delayed much longer. Already there are
rumours that the Government intend to
dispense altogether with a director for the
NationalGallery,and theBoard ofEducation,
which has replaced the notorious Science
and Art Department, would be only too
happy to follow so comfortable a precedent.
We have already pointed out the imme-
diate damage which must result to our
national collections from such an anarchical
policy. The appearance in England of a
first-class Titian of an order which is un-
likely to come up for sale again, and of a
kind of which we have not a single example
in any public gallery, might serve as a text
for a further discourse on the subject. The
National Arts Collection Fund has just
atoned for one of the most discreditable
omissions of the Chantrey Trustees, but it
cannot be expected to make up for every
fault in our official system.

The evil effects of such a policy would not
be confined to the particular appointments
now vacant. The passing over of men of
note, either in favour of an official favourite,
or of a committee of gentlemen, who, how-
ever intelligent, keen, and conscientious
they may be, are, after all, only amateurs,
would be a blow not only to our national
collections but also to our national scho-
larship. The rewards of the sincere and
capable student of art in Great Britain are
already few enough and poor enough in all

The Burlington Magazine, No. 49. Vol. VII— August 1905

E E

conscience; but if the two or three posts
that carry any real position with them are
abolished or filled by men who are ob-
viously not the most experienced and scho-
larly men available, the effect upon art
institutions throughout the country cannot
fail to be disastrous.

Capable directors cannot be improvised
at a moment's notice. If the highest posts
were always properly filled, they would re-
main as a perpetual incentive to workers
in humbler positions both in London and
in the provinces. Provincial galleries, in-
deed, stand sorely in need of some such
stimulus. Two or three conspicuous suc-
cesses in the Midlands and in the North
are made the more prominent by the
ignorance and mismanagement of the re-
mainder. Bradford may serve as a case in
point. Last year Bradford opened a nand-
some art gallery. With the help of many
prominent artists and collectors, a represen-
tative exhibition was formed of the best
English painting and English furniture
from the beginning of the eighteenth cen-
tury to the present time, a show which in
method and completeness has rarely been
rivalled in the provinces. Yet in spite of
this admirable object lesson the corpora-
tion has now apparently wasted its money
upon pictures of the type beloved of the
readers of penny magazines — pictures of
which even the least well informed galleries
in other counties have begun to fight shy.
Yet if our Government discourages scholar-
ship, how can a poor provincial town coun-
cil be expected to do better ?

If rumour may be trusted, it is upon
Lord Lansdowne that the Prime Minister
relies for advice in these matters; we
therefore hope that the judgement which
the Foreign Secretary has recently shown
in international affairs will soon be exercised
on behalf of serious art scholarship in the
country, and of the important industries
directly or indirectly dependent upon it.

343

PIETRO ARETINO BY TITIAN
J8T* BY ROGER E. FRY J5T»

'HE portrait of Aretino
by Titian, from theChigi
Palace, now at Messrs.
P. cv I). Colnaghi's gallery
and here reproduced by
their kind permission,
has been made familiar
to students by Dr. Gronau's notice and
reproduction of it in his excellent mono-
graph on the master. It is no small
piece of good fortune to us to be able
to examine at leisure and in a good
light so remarkable an example of Titian's
portraiture. It is indeed in some ways a
unique example on account of the peculiar
relationship which subsisted between the
artist and sitter.

The conditions of the artist's profession
were undergoing rapid changes by the
middle of the sixteenth century. The
barriers of local schools were breaking
down, the power and wealth of the men
who surrounded Charles V were pre-
dominant, a new idea of aristocratic and
courtly etiquette was beginning to pre-
vail. The old intimacy between patrons
and even humble craftsmen was disappear-
ing. In tact the conditions were changing
from that of the mediaeval guild with its
well established trade rules to those of
modern life. Already the prizes of the
few successful artists were becoming im-
mense, already these stood out from the
ruck of the profession as they had never
done before. Picture -painting was be-
coming a somewhat speculative profession
instead of a solid and humble trade. With
this change towards modern conditions
two important modern auxiliaries of the
craft came into existence, the dealer and
the journalist. In the scramble for prizes,
the intrigues for favour, amid all the cross
currents and undertows of influence which
went on in court-life, Aretino piloted
Titian with the consummate skill, the
brilliant wit, and the brazen impudence

which distinguished him. He it was who
knew the precise moment at which a
present would take effect, who knew
which picture to send to the Empress in
order to secure the Emperor's favour.
Titian, man of the world though he was,
had not, one may imagine, the same cer-
tainty of instinct nor the same cynical
knowledge of human nature as this pro-
fessional flatterer, bully, and tout. In any
case Titian owed something of his extra-
ordinarily rapid success to Aretino, and their
intimate friendship remained unbroken for
nearly thirty years. That Aretino had the
sensibility of an artist, a keen critical in-
sight and the charm of a brilliant talker,
together with some capacity for generous
and spontaneous feeling, may help to explain
Titian's intimacy.

Thus it is that there are few portraits left
to us by the greatest masters in which the
relation of artist and sitter was as intimate
as is here the case. According to Milanesi
Titian painted Aretino six times. Once as
Pilate in the Christ before Pilate at Vienna,
once as a soldier in the Allocution of del
J\isto in the same gallery, and four times
in separate portraits. One of these, exe-
cuted in 1545, was sent by Aretino to
Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, and is now in
the Pitti. It is this which is described in
a letter by Aretino with disparaging re-
marks, unintelligible to our eyes, about the
painting of the accessories. Another was
painted in 1527, soon after Aretino's arrival
in Venice, and was sent to the marquis of
Mantua. The date of this clearly prevents
it from being the same as the Chigi por-
trait, which, therefore, is probably one of
the two remaining ones of which we have
notices. These were, one belonging to
the engraver Marcolini, the other done
for Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici. Since
Ippolito was poisoned in 1535, while our
picture must clearly date from the forties,
there is every probability that it is the one

344

PORTRAIT OF PIETRO ARETINO, BY
TITIAN ; FORMERLY IN TH1 HIG1

PALACE, NOW IN THE POSSESSION OF
MESSRS. P. N Ii. < OLNAGHI.

which was once in Marcolini's possession.
Marcolini used to boast of this that Titian
had painted it in three days, and indeed
there is nothing incredible in such a state-
ment. The portrait has a note of intimacy
and spontaneity which well agrees with the
idea of its being such a rapid rendering of
a man struck off while the inspiration of
some happy accident of pose and lighting
on the familiar features lasted — a work
done entirely among friends without any
reference to the outside world, without any
pose or afterthought. It has strikingly
this character when compared with the Pitti
portrait, done perhaps a few years earlier,
but done with slightly more regard to Are-
tino's pretensions. In that it is true the
satyr in Aretino comes out, but the in-
tention is to show him as a great man, as
the intimate of princes and the patron of
merit. Here we have Aretino in his
friend's studio, without self-consciousness,
without pose and without reserve, ab-
stracted for a moment, in a mood of
equable reverie, which allows one to see
the whole man with no one aspect so em-
phasized as to disturb the balance.

Whether the picture is, as we have sug-
gested, the one done for Marcolini or no,
it has the character which we have indi-
cated : it is an intensely artistic portrait,
painted particularly for those who under-
stand the language of art, painted without
any compromises with the exigencies of
princely or popular demands. Such at
least is the impression which we get
from this wonderful masterpiece, with
its intense simplification of form, of tone,
and of colour. The contour is rounded off
to a great oval mass almost including the
head, which, with its heavy bull neck and
massive protruding forehead, predominates,
in spite of the exaggerated length and
volume of the body and arm. Several por-
traits painted about the same period as this
show a similar tendency to m such a rounded
oval mass in the general contour. Dr. Gro-

Tietro Aretino by 'Titian

nau has already called attention to the
similarity with the Granvella portrait at
Besancon of 1548, and the John Frederick
of Sax ony, of the same year, affords another
striking example. In tone and colour the
same reduction to the simplest and most
directly expressive terms is apparent. The
whole magnificent scheme built up out of
a few elements, the pure and lovely grey
(a Whistlerian grey in effect) of the back-
ground, the deep, tawny brown orange of
the robe, and the rich, earthy carnations,
make an unforgettable harmony in one
restricted key.

The handling betrays the same singleness
of purpose ; the impressive effect of solidity
and mass is obtained by thin scumbles,
put on with the utmost ease and apparent
rapidity ; a few marvellously written scrawls
of lighter yellow upon the half-tone of the
sleeve give it at once its form and an adequate
notion of texture. Throughout we get
the spontaneity of direct, together with
the elusiveness and mystery of indirect
painting. Analysis here gives place to mere
wonder at the inscrutable quality of the
result.

It has been suggested that means should
be found to acquire this magnificent work
for the nation, and already we believe an
anonymous and public-spirited donor has
offered a large sum towards the price. It
is most sincerely to be hoped that others
will come forward with the same gene-
rosity. With this example of Titian's
portraiture in the full maturity of his
powers placed beside the early Giorgio-
nesque work we have lately acquired, we
should have the most interesting exemplifi-
cation of the development of Titian's
genius. Titian at seventy was so com-
pletely different a man from Titian at
twenty-five, and both were such supreme
masters, that the scheme of acquiring this
for the nation should not be overruled on
the ground that we already possess a noble
example of his work as a portraitist.

347

DALOU

J8T* BY CHARLES

OME fifteen years ago it
was not an uncommon
thing to hear that French
art was in complete deca-
dence, that two artists
'alone, Bastien Lepage and
Dalou, relieved the average ' doubtless
clever — but tricky.' Time and fashion have
dealt very roughly (too roughly in fact)
with Lepage ; Dalou has survived for several
reasons, among which we may count his
genuine and instinctive ability.

For some years an exile in England, he
is still remembered as an indirect educa-
tional influence on our more timid local
sculpture. France in the second virgin
blush of her Third Republic has welcomed
him again as a new republican sculptor, the
sculptor in fact of the republic. At its
best his work is assured of enduring admi-
ration, at its worst it is a survival from the
Second Empire. Easy in his art, engaging,
and a little florid, to some he is an admir-
able ' piece sculptor,' to others he is a ' de-
corative sculptor : ' both verdicts are founded
on his facility. If admirable at times in the
execution of the piece, he never achieves
the mastery which Rodin for instance re-
veals in a bust or fragment ; with one or
two exceptions Dalou has executed no good
busts. In his large decorative works he
realizes a spirited effect which raises them
beyond decorative set-pieces; they are ' tell-
ing ' as a whole, admirable in part if a little
shallow in invention ; they are genial and
abundant, rhetorical in a legitimate way,
and admirably illustrative of their sounding
titles, Fraternity uniting the people, Time
striding to wrest the wreath from Fame. In
this he is essentially French — it is part of
the temper of a people that has inherited
the old Latin sense of the effective. Some-
thing which has a pictorial force is to be
found in the utterances of Napoleon and the
men of the Revolution. Delacroix and even
Puvis de Chavannes give titles to their

348

RICKETTS JV*

works which have an epigrammatic terse-
ness in their Latin ease. Dalou is in every-
thing traditional and Gallic, he is at his
ease in the public place and in the palace —
that is, a French palace where Fame, Vic-
tory, and the Arts find a home even in the
cornices. I would state this without the
slightest insular or provincial British pre-
judice. I recognize in our more shy and
remote sense of art a lesser vitality, or per-
haps even conviction. I am even inclined
to think that our coldness towards direct-
ness of utterance, or condensed thought, or
effective symbol accounts to some extent
for the small hold the sculpture of Alfred
Stevens has achieved upon cultivated people
in this country. Dalou lived for several
years in England, known to his contem-
poraries as a facile and dainty craftsman
whose work showed something of that
undefinable quality which might be de-
scribed as ' le sourire du XVIIP siecle.'
In the Victorian era, which we are begin-
ning to look back upon as one of great
refinement, anterior to the sort of ' Hotel
Ritz ' ideal of life now prevailing, Dalou
obtained employment even from royalty,
and to the English phase of his career we
owe two very fine works, an admirable
bust of Mrs. Crowe and an admirable seated
portrait of Lady Carlisle. English taste, with
its leaning towards the pretty, encouraged
him in that side of his temperament in
which he descends from the craftsmen of the
eighteenth century ; he is often of their
rank. He is not to be counted with the
foremost of them like the incomparable
Houdon (one of France's truly great artists) ;
and Clodion, with all his desperate facility
and monotony, is perhaps more endowed
in that essential element of personality,
being in fact a sort of eighteenth-century
Rossellino ; but a comparison between
Dalou and the work of Falconet and Pajou
is not crushing to the modern Frenchman.
Dalou's work is more at home in fact in

■J
<
-

*r ar

the vicinity of the better sculpture of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than
in the companv of the major sculptors of
the nineteenth ; there is a latent feverish-
ness in the work of Carpeaux which was
due perhaps to the lingering influence of
Delacroix. The more austere and intense
arts of Barve, Rodin, and Meunier are even
less allied to him, though in some of his
latest works he has not concealed his ac-
knowledgedadmirationfor Meunier. Rude,
the republican who incarnates the Revolu-
tion and the First Empire, has had little
influence upon Dalou the republican and
socialist. It is Houdon and Clodion who
were crushed by the Revolution, who stand
sponsors to his art ; Puget and Caffieri
were not far off, the second had stood spon-
sor to Carpeaux ; but these masters felt and
modelled with a more violent and expres-
sive force. Dalou's work stands below them
in character, below them in sincerity ; he
is too fluent and easy and too local.

Perhaps the last sentence requires some
explanation, for in the long run it will be
found that most great artists focus for us
the temper of some locality or period in
which the casual and contemporary man is
very anxious to claim some after share.
Let us for the moment grant that most art
could only have been done when and where
it was done. We find, nevertheless, that the
major men stand above these more obvious
relationships ; they catch light from each
other even at a distance, and illumine the
future of a great art tradition, such as it has
been the privilege of two great civilizing
nations — Italy and France — to produce :
the major men stand out as beacons on
different heights. However related to
French thought and emotion, the art of
Rodin, for instance, is equally related to that
of Donatello and Michael Angelo, whose
teaching he turns to his own special uses.
Bane, though one of the great figures of the
Romantic period, faces the essential ele-
ments of his art with a directness and pre-

Dalou

cision which carry us back in thought
almost to a pre-Pheidean epoch.

Below such men stand their artistic con-
temporaries who translate into a more
general tongue the more personal messages
of the major man. These secondary crafts-
men remould the temper of their period and
nation, and form the connecting and reflect-
in? mass between different masters and tra-
ditions. This faculty of absorption and
dilution, this faculty for continuity and
reconciliation, is a great element in the
general French artistic temperament ; no-
thing escapes it, nothing is lost by it, it is
at once the privilege of the greater number,
and, if viewed properly, a sort of consolation
to the master. It is in the essentially tradi-
tional and national elements in French art
that Dalou is quite himself; a slight accent
of his own epoch — that, namely, of the
Second Empire — accounts for an indefinable
absence of what I would call spirituality
for lack of a more accurate word ; the
amiability of the eighteenth century is more
nimble and delicate. In the art of Dalou
we find that the kindred elements between
the great French sculptors, such as Puget
and Carpeaux, have become reconciled to
Houdon and even to Clodion, whose fresh
wet clay work Dalou can emulate, whose
method of sketching he at times possesses
absolutely. The head of Diana here re-
produced l is a vounger sister of the more
aristocratic and exquisite goddess by Hou-
don, who in her turn, perhaps, claims re-
lationship with the lithe elegant figures
of the French Renaissance ; for, strangely
enough, this bust by this modern sculptor
is even more in the manner of the eighteenth
centurv than the prototype. This Diana
seems on the watch for some rude, sudden
Cupid by Fragonard, bent on stealing her
arrows. A study of a sleeping child 2 might
be some piece of sculpture introduced by
Chardin in a group of accessories illustrating
the arts ; both these works are exquisite ;

F F

' Plate I, page 349 s Plate II, page 352.

353

Dalou

they are illumined by the spirit of a charmed
period in art, that of the ieighteenth cen-
tury ; they are touched with the sunlight
of France — to use the exquisite words of
the great Gluck.

Like many facile and instinctive artists,
Dalou felt he had also some major intellectual
mission, and to that impression we owe two
magnificent works, the Monument of the
Republic with its decorative lions, cherubs,
and buxom women, and a fine bas-relief of
Fraternity Uniting the People. Both are
virile in modelling and fine in the sense of
movement ; they are equal in quality to
the superb Silenus and Nymphs in the Lux-
embourg Gardens, which has no didactic
aim. In these pictorial groups the sense
of vitality runs high, the invention and
modelling are rich and easy; they are worth
a dozen monuments to Gambetta or the
projected Pillar to the Proletariat or Monu-
ment du Travail, with its hastily invented
series of workmen niched in a ridiculous
tower.

I have stated that Dalou was unsuccessful
in most of his busts ; in this he inherits

nothing from his master Carpeaux, nothing
from Houdon, who are both two of the
greatest, perhaps the two greatest, portrait
sculptors ; yet, to me at least, there is one
exception, namely his bust of Delacroix.
This is so admirable that one wonders if
too great an habitual reliance upon nature
may not account for his many failures ; or
shall we say that the exigencies of his living
models may be to blame with their pre-
conceived knowledge of their faces in
photography, whose influence has by now
almost stifled all interpretive art in current
modern portraiture ? True, that in the bust
of Delacroix the sculptor had the fine ner-
vous portrait by the master to follow, yet
this does not discount the fact that the
result surpasses anticipation, that it reveals
imaginative insight, showing us Delacroix
as he stands in history, concentrated and
intense, one of those who are ' impassioned
of passion ' ; this vivid face in bronze is
worthy of the model ; it is outside and be-
yond the habitual temper and gift of Dalou ;
it is possessed of the finest qualities possible

in portraiture.

STUDY FOR THE 'EGREMONT FAMILY PIECE' BY

GEORGE ROMNEY

This striking work, which by the cour-
tesy of the owner, Mrs. BischofFsheim,
we are permitted to reproduce as a fron-
tispiece to the present number of The
Burlington Magazine (p. 342), is a
comparatively recent addition to the artistic
treasures of Bute House. According to
Mr. Humphry Ward's monumental ' Life
of Romney' the original picture at Petworth
was painted at Eartham for Lord Egremont
in 1795- The subject is described as 'A
lady and four children ; the lady in the
character of Titania, with her children as
fairies, shooting at bats with bows and
arrows.' Some uncertainty seems to exist
as to the identity of the lady in the Petworth
group. There was no countess of Egremont
when the picture was painted, and the earl

354

who commissioned it was never married,
and his mother by a second marriage became
Countess Briihl in 1794. In the Petworth
Catalogue (No. 381) the personages are thus
enumerated : ' Elizabeth countess of Egre-
mont, with Colonel Wyndham, General
Wyndham, Lady Burrell, and Mrs. King
when children.

In Mrs. BischofFsheim's version of the
subject the recumbent figure is obviously
a reminiscence of Lady Hamilton. The
picture appears to have remained in Sus-
sex till it was recently brought to Lon-
don. There it was recognized and pur-
chased by Mrs. BischofFsheim, and her
judgement has been since confirmed by
Mr. Claude Phillips and Sir Walter Arm-
strong.

SOME FLORENTINE WOODCUTS
J0* BY G. T. CLOUGH J*

HE religious side of the
Renascentine movement
— that which presented
itself to a cultured Italian
— had surely its element
of pathos. Around him
he saw the mental sys-
tems of an Old World of thought engaged
in conflict with a New World of ideas, and
mediaeval mysticism hard put to it to hold
her own in the atmosphere of classical
artificiality with which humanism enve-
loped her. Then Rome, with her monu-
ments, some freshly discovered, all freshly
appreciated, stepped into the arena, bring-
ing to the new cause traditions that had the
charm both of antiquity and the appeal to
patriotism. To the mind of a Florentine
or Milanese citizen, grieving over Italy's
divisions and exposure to foreign incursion,
Rome would present herself with enhanced
vigour as the embodiment of unity, and a
dominion which made invasion the re-
motest of contingencies ; while, for the
sensuous side of his character, fresh stimu-
lus would be provided by the store of pagan
imagery which every year saw rescued by
her excavators. Is it matter for wonder
that, among the great and the learned,
doubt should here and there have arisen as
to the limits likely to be observed by the
new movement — whether Neopaganism
would not reach the position of an accepted
creed, and Christ have to give place to
Jupiter ? But as in the rise of Christianity,
so now in her temporary decline, her hold
upon ' the common people ' is the secret of
her power ; and while among the human-
ists cases arise of those who coquet with
Olympus, or burn lamps before Plato, the
great mass of the population remains faith-
ful to orthodox ideas.

In their prosecution of this conflict be-
tween two ideals, the ascetic, and one that
took all knowledge and all pleasure for its
province, both sides furnished employment

for the new art of engraving. Mantegna's
contributions by his burin to the classical
revival are too well known to need de-
scription.

From Marc - Antonio's bottega there
issued a succession of some 170 still extant
pieces, devoted to pagan mythology or
classical storv — sheets which, on their fir^t
appearance, Vasari tells us, ' struck all
Rome with amazement.' The passionate
interest taken by cultured society in Roman
excavations was fostered by engraved ver-
sions of her statues; while the patriotism ot
a population, torn by internal division and
wracked by fear of foreign invasion, was
soothed by reminiscences of Rome's former
imperial ascendency — prints which derive
additional poignancy from the consideration
that their purchasers must, many of them,
have seen her sacked by the Constable
Bourbon's mercenaries. The opposing
ranks of Christian orthodoxy, these also
wielded weapons forged in Marc-Antonio's
workshop: witness his counterfeited edition
of Diirer's ' Life of the Virgin,' and numer-
ous biblical subjects, the cherished trea-
sures of sixteenth-century virtuosi. But
for the typical printed art of the masses,
whose piety formed the mainstay of the
official religion, we must turn to the ephe-
meral chap-books, which recorded for the
Florentine populace the words of Savon-
arola's sermons and the popular miracle-
plays. In these catchpenny pamphlets, of
which, from their frail character, only
sixteenth-century later editions, for the
most part, have come down to us, we find
impressions of wood blocks designed and
cut towards the close of the fifteenth cen-
tury, when Renascentine art had reached
its apogee of gracefulness, and before it
had passed, as it too soon did pass, into a
stage of meretricious exuberance. The
paternity of their designs has been given
to various artists — notably by Mr. Berenson,
in the case of some of them, to a follower

355

Some Florentine Woodcuts

Fig. I.

of Ghirlandaio. 1 What I wish here to
emphasize is the happy fortune of the
Florentine masses, for whose benefit these
delicately beautiful woodcuts were pub-
lished, at a time when painting generally
wore the bombastic forms favoured by
men like Bronzino and Vasari —
pigmies straining themselves to
wear Michelangelo's armour. If,
as we can well believe, the wave
of Spanish pietism, which swept
the peninsula in the wake of
Charles V's invasion, led to a
larger demand for miracle-play
literature, we may regard the
consequent preservation of these
modest designs as some small
counterpoise to the injury wrought
by that movement upon the art
of the sixteenth century.

Happy in the general concep-
tion of these illustrations, the

draughtsmen of the majority of them
were equally happy in their adaptation
of their design to the conditions of the
material that was to interpret it. They
seem to have recognized intuitively that
the flat black ground of the block was
the artistic raison d'etre of a woodcut's exist-
ence, and that to work that black ground
in the direction of its greatest capacity of
expression was a law for the designer no less
than the craftsman. Self-evident as this
may appear, the contrary practice had been
too much the rule in Germany, whose colder
climate made it, from an early age, the home
of duplicated illustration. There, wood-
cutting had from the first been set to
reproduce drawings made with the pen or
point, and a material whose special genius
lay in the rendering of tint had with the
rarest exceptions 2 been set to copying line. 3
Transferred to Italy, the art in the main took
the same unfortunate direction, the greatest
skill being devoted to the execution of wood-
cuts whose ideal seemed to be the reduction of
the black ground of the block to a mini-
mum. In Florence however — whether,

2 Conspicuous among these exceptions are the six wood blocks
giving the intricate convolutions of an endless white line which
Diirer produced under the inspiration of certain line engravings
proceeding from Leonardo da Vinci's Academy.

8 The existence of a preliminary stage in which woodcut was
supplemented by colour-wash will not, however wide its pre-
valence, affect our judgment of the final and independent result.

1 Burlington Magazine, Vol. I, pp. 18, 19
(March 1903).

Fig. 2.

356

as Delaborde suggests, from the artists'
previous familiarity with niello - work,
or from that intuitive perception of the
narrow road of rectitude in art which
her citizens believed they owed to their
clearer air and severer mutual criticism
— in Florentine woodcuts we find the
ground of the block allowed fuller artistic
utterance. Even here the law of white on
black is by no means unanimously followed,
and Delaborde's statement regarding the
Florentine artists, that it is ' d'un com-
mun accord qu'ils s'y conforment,' re-
quires some qualification. The charming
woodcut given by Mr. Pollard and Dr.
Kristeller, from Jacopone da Todi's ' Laudi,'
runs perilously close to contemporary
Venetian cuts in giving a suggestio falsi
as to the nature of the material employed,
and not a few of the cuts in Kristeller,
if their borders were eliminated, would
be open to the same criticism. Figs. 2
and 3 here reproduced, the signs of whose
blocks' long service cannot hide their original
beauty, fall within the same category. In
advance of these the fine cut from the ' Rap-
presentazione of S. Alexo,' Fig. 4, shows the
block's ground utilized for door and window
shadow ; while in Fig. 5 it is given still
greater prominence in the form of alternate

Fig. 3-

Some Florentine Woodcuts

insets to a stone flooring. From this it is
but a step to scenes like Fig. 6, represent-
ing Saint Apollonia's martyrdom, in which
the intaglio effect is complete, and the
scheme white on black receives full reali-
zation. After this the transference of the
method to out-door effects is easy, and we
reach a scene like Fig. 7, which represents
the Communion of St. Mary Magdalene,
or still better Fig. 8, where some artist
working in his happiest mood has found a
craftsman worthy of his conception.

Dr. Kristeller's text-book gives his readers
abundant examples of the black ground's
various stages of utilization. I have con-
fined myself in the above to cuts, repro-
ductions of which do not appear in his
pages, and which an appeal to Mr. Pollard's
wide experience of book illustration in-
duces me to think are among the speci-
mens of the art least familiar to English
students. 4

In thus putting the Rappresentazione
woodcuts in the forefront of the religious
printed art of the Florentine masses, we
have to make the admission that some of
the cuts attain that dignity solely by the
accident of their insertion in the text of
the miracle-plays, and not by any inherent
directness of religious application. When
the publisher of a later edition of
one of these ' books of the words'
wished to give it greater attrac-
tiveness, he felt no scruple about
inserting a block that had ap-
peared in a secular publication,
however unsuitable might be its
past history or present signifi-
cance. Thus the woodcut Fig. 8,
containing two queens, with their

4 Of Fig. 1 I can find no mention in Dr. Kris-
teller's catalogue. The border is characteristically
Florentine, but there are points about the treat-
ment of the subject suggesting Venetian influence,
and I am doubtful therefore of its right to appear
in its present companionship. The print, which
is a mere fragment, bears upon its verso a list of
the virtues and vices, ' L'Odio, La Fede,' etc.,
arranged index fashion. Here also I find trace of
the Venetian dialect. Possibly some more experi-
enced reader of the Burlington can throw light
on the origin of the cut.

357

Some Florentine Woodcuts

C RAPPRESENTATIONE DIS.ALEXO

Fig. 4.

attendants, strolling through a charming
landscape, has been borrowed by the
publisher from some unknown source to
embellish the story of the Maries and
Lazarus, with which it has not the
slightest literary connexion. The same
miracle-play treats us to a picture of the

358

. death bed of Lazarus, of which all the
"appropriateness is dissipated by the fact
obtruded on our notice that the sufferer is
a woman. Again, Dr. Kristeller's repro-
duction, No. 168, in which a bare-legged
gentleman prepared for bed is laying down
the law to a much-afflicted lady, makes
its first appearance in the 'Novella della
figliuola del mercatante,' the story of a wife
who from prudential motives makes her
escape from her husband at the close of the
marriage festivities. Opening its career
under these wholly secular and somewhat
dubious conditions, it is rather startling to
find the cut figuring in a later miracle-play
containing the story of St. Theodora, a
maiden who, on religious grounds, had
vowed herself to perpetual virginity, and
suffered martyrdom rather than become
the wife of a heathen pro-consul.

In the tribute rendered above to the
merits of the Florentine school of wood-
cutting it will be understood that it is
the relative superiority of their method
that I wish to establish, not the pre-
eminence over all other woodcut illus-
tration of their ultimate result. I have
supposed it to be an axiom that a
method which displays the nature of the
material employed, and carries it for-
ward in the direction of its greatest
capacity of expression, is more artistic
than one that obscures the material basis
and neglects its special genius of utter-
ance. I should have thought this to be
a truth so elementary as to be perilously
close to a commonplace, if it had not
furnished occasion for controversy be-
tween two reputable antagonists, one a
theorist, the other an expert, and if I were
not, in the line here adopted, so unfortunate
as to be opposed by the expert. When the
late Mr. Hamerton in his volume on the
Graphic Arts reaches the art of Holbein
and his exponent Lutzelburger, he finds
himself obliged to qualify his admiration
of the Dance of Death series by the follow-

Some Florentine Jl r oodeuts

ing caution : ' It is a great mis-
take to suppose that facsimile
wood-engraving, like that which
bears the name of Holbein, repre-
sents the art at its best, or even
represents it fairly. The Holbein
cuts are only drawings in grey and
white, and they do not make the
most of a wood-block, with its
possibilities of fine blacks and
other resources.' Upon this judge-
ment that excellent craftsman
Mr. W. J. Linton brings down his
truncheon with almost Johnso-
nian vigour. ' I think this very
unintelligent criticism. Aredraw-
ings or engravings in grey and
white less artistic than drawings
or engravings that make the most of " fine
blacks " or " other resources " ? '

Here, I submit, it is Mr. Linton who is
unintelligent, ignoring the point at issue.
It is of course quite conceivable that two
pre-eminent artists, working on mistaken
lines, may combine in the creation of a
masterpiece which shall eclipse the pro-
ductions of their less competent brethren
working on a more harmonious system.
Few, I suppose, would deny to Holbein

Fig. 6.

Fig- 5-

and Lutzelburger, or to Diirer and that un-
known form Schneider who cut the block of
the Great Trinity (Bartsch, 122), the credit
of producing results which defy comparison,
and form the acme of Renascentine woodcut
illustration. All this it is possible to grant,
and yet feel regarding them that they are
only magnificent aberrations, victories won
in defiance of the rules of the game, and
that in the modest prints here treated of,
stray waifs from the Florentine presses, we
are ' shown a more excellent
way ' of utilizing a wood-
block's resources.

It is on much the same
principle that some of us con-
I tinue to derive pleasure from
line engravings of the now de-
preciated Roman school, a
pleasure which is quite distinct
from that afforded us by their
grace of form or place in Re-
nascentine history. In the
generous spaces clear of shad-
ing, that we owe to their
limited chiaroscuro, we find
record, not only of each plate's
line of execution, but of the
art's early connexion with low-

359

Some Florentine Woodcuts

Fig. 7-

relief metalwork. Our imagination carries
us back in thought to those early crafts-
men, and that worship of humanity which
underlies all artistic interest, whether in
the cave-dwellers' scratchings or in the
vault of the Sistine, receives grateful stimu-
lation. Add to these merits that predomi-
nance of noble line, which was im-
paired when local colour was given
its value and the plate was wholly
obscured with shading, and we get
a result which makes us disposed
to be lenient to some tameness in
the burin-work, and to an occa-
sional defect in draughtsmanship.
One further reflection presents
itself. Wood-engraving is not the
only art which, lured by the charm
of a rival, has at some stage of its
career left the road and been false to
its highestvocation. Students will
remember in plastic art instances
where bronze has been given a
treatment inspired by painting 5

* Ghiberti's gates for instance.
360

and in architecture where stone has
copied forms more appropriate to a fibrous
material. In the case of these arts, how-
ever, the lapse from principle was only
occasional, or made during the period
of early immaturity. It was the fate of
wood-engraving, over the larger part of
Western Europe, and for the greater part
of its career, to put forth work, voluminous
in quantity and of great technical ability,
which was conceived upon a system pre-
scribed for it by a kindred art, based upon
radically different technical conditions ;
and, Florence and the North Italian chiaros-
curo prints excluded, we have to come to
England, and the close of the eighteenth
century, to find the surface texture of a
wood-block given its completest and most
natural expression. It is a far cry artistically
and socially from Florence under the earlier
Medici to Newcastle or London under the
later Georges ; but it adds to the pleasure
we derive from these Florentine woodcuts
that we are able to see in their unknown
authors the precursors of William Blake and
Thomas Bewick, and find, even in the rudest
of them, anticipations of the skill displayed
in pictures like those of Phillips's 'Pastoral
Poems,' and the ' British Birds.'

|FW4MiJ<>WI (JM£WJW«^*tt*raT[

Fig. 8.

MINOR ENGLISH FURNITURE MAKERS OF THE

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

JS^BY R. S. CLOUSTONJ5T*

ARTICLE VIII— {Conclusion) 1

EVERAL of the publica-
tions of the Chippendale
period are interesting rather
from the bearing they have
on the furniture history of
the time than from artistic
merit. Chief among these
is a book by William Halfpenny, entitled
'New Designs for Chinese Temples, Trium-
phal Arches, Garden Seats, etc' This
was published in 1750 ; that is, four
years before Chippendale's ' Director,' and
also prior to the time when Sir William
Chambers settled in London. The intro-
duction of 'the Chinese taste' is, never-
theless, continually ascribed to one or other
of these men, who had certainly nothing
to do with its inception, so far, at least, as
publication is concerned. Actual Chinese
pieces had been imported into England in the
latter half of the seventeenth century, and
though it is difficult to fix even the approxi-
mate date when English furniture design
began to be affected, it is certain that it was
considerably before even Halfpenny's publi-
cation. He does not, like Chambers, make
any misleading claim to innovation, but, on
the contrary, distinctly states that the
Chinese style had already been used ' with
success.'

Chambers, therefore, could have had
nothing to do with the introduction of
Chinese design ; and though it is possible
that Chippendale may have been the first
culprit so far as actual manufacture is con-
cerned, it is extremely unlikely. He
troubled himself neither with invention nor
the search for new influences, being content
to take what lay to his hand, and, in his own
words, ' refine and improve ' what other
designers had already made fashionable.

1 For Articles I to VII see Vol. IV, page 227; Vol. V,
page 173 ; Vol. VI, pp. 47, 210, 402 ; and pp. 41, 211 ante (March,
May, October, December, 1904 ; February, April, June, 1905).

G G

It was probably to Halfpenny's book and
another (equally open to criticism) pub-
lished by Edwards and Darly in 1754, that
Chambers alluded when he spoke of ' the
extravagancies that daily appear under the
name of Chinese.' ' Most of them,' he con-
tinues, ' are mere inventions, and the rest
copies from the lame representations found
on porcelain and paperhangings.'

Even the advent of Robert Adam did
nothing to stop the Chinese craze, and some
of the most virulent examples were pub-
lished by Crunden in 1765, and again in
1770. These are absolutely without value
from any point of view, and a third book
by the same author (1776), in which he had
the assistance of Columbani, Overton, and
Milton, is little better. From his titles to
his designs, everything connected with his
books is merely laughable. High-flown
titles for such publications were a fashion
of the time, but no one attained the point
of bathos touched by Crunden when he
christened his first book " The Joyner and
Cabinet-Maker's Darling.'

Matthias Darly — not the one who colla-
borated with Edwards, but Chippendale's
principal engraver — published a book of his
own, mostly architectural, in 1 770. A con-
siderable part of this bears a very strong
resemblance to the plates he engraved tor
Chippendale ; indeed, it requires an actual
comparison of the books to be certain that
Chippendale's plates of the five orders of
architecture have not been reprinted. The
chimney-pieces are also so exceedingly
similar as to make it likely that those in the
' Director ' were designed as well as en-
graved by Darly. He gives several pages
of urns and vases, all of them being heavy
and clumsy in style — the very acme of the
useless combined with the unornamental.
He is somewhat happier in his mirror

361

Minor English Furniture Makers

frames, in which he attempts, though vainly,
to follow Robert Adam. The book is well
engraved, for Darly executed the plates him-
self, but it is a wearisome production with
little else to recommend it to notice.

Another designer of the time who, follow-
ing in his father's footsteps, adapted himself
to the newer feeling, was Thomas Chip-
pendale the younger. George Smith, ' Up-
holsterer to His Majesty,' writing of him in
1826, says, 'Mr. Thomas Chippendale
(lately deceased) though possessing a great
degree of taste and ability as a draughtsman
and designer, was known only to a few.'
The exact date of his death, as has been
discovered by Miss Constance Simon, was
1823, and he was probably born about
1750, as, again quoting Miss Simon, his
father, or another man of the name, was
married in 1748.

We are also indebted to the same author
for the information that both Thomas
Chippendale and his son were members of
the Society of Arts, and that the younger
man, despite his connexion with the rival
institution, had pictures hung from time to
time by the Royal Academy. Of these
there seems unfortunately to be no trace,
but their titles would suggest that he was
influenced by George Morland, who, though
only twenty-one at the date of the first of
these exhibits (1784), had already come to
the front.

The ' London Directory ' of the eigh-
teenth century is excessively incomplete,
and in most cases there is but little to be learnt
from it. As negative evidence it is value-
less, for it seems to have been looked on,
both by its producers and the firms men-
tioned in it, as a means of advertisement
rather than a complete and exhaustive
directory. Very few of the cabinet-makers
thought it necessary for their names to
appear at all, and then chiefly in the closing
years of the century. The author of the
' Director ' never used it, though a certain
John Chippindale, cooper (who later spells

362

his name ' Chippingdale'), does so from
1 760 . It is possible that he may have been
a connexion of the furniture maker's, es-
pecially as he seems to have taken a partner
into his business in the same year (1779).
The St. Martin's Lane firm were equally
careless how their names were spelt, the first
mention of them being as ' Chippindale and
Hage,' mistakes which they did not trouble
to correct till 1785, when for a few years
the junior partner became head of the busi-
ness, which is then entered as ' Haig and
Chippendale.'

Though the approximate time of the last
Chippendale's death has always been com-
mon knowledge, there is a widespread idea
that the difference in style between the first
and third editions of the 'Director' arose
from the introduction of designs by Thomas
Chippendale's son or sons. There is no im-
possibility as regards dates that this may
have been the case, for the marriage dis-
covered by Miss Simon may either be that
of someone else or not a first marriage.
The differences in style, however, are di-
rectly traceable to the influence of Johnson
and the employment of fresh engravers,
whose individualities show so plainly that
the latitude allowed to them is evident.

Another argument against the supposi-
tion, which I have myself expressed, is
founded on the more retiring nature of the
son and his avoidance of advertising him-
self by publication. That he did not pro-
duce a book at all comparable to the
' Director ' may be looked on as certain,
for such a book, with such a name attached,
could hardly have been lost. There has,
however, lately come into my hands a small
publication by him containing eight original
etchings, each plate being signed 'T.Chip-
pendale Jun r - inv'- et ex.', and dated 1779.
From these it is at least evident that his
reason for not appearing before the public
in a more pretentious way was not lack of
artistic ability. The etchings are by no
means supreme either in design or execu-

Minor English Furniture Makers

tion, but they are much the best of the
original plates produced by any of the furni-
ture designers of the time, with the possible
exception of some by Pergolesi. Unfortu-
nately, they are devoted entirely to orna-
ment; yet they are interesting not only in
themselves, but as showing the change
which had taken place in the work of the
firm. The author of the ' Director ' was
still alive at the date of this publication,
though there is some reason for supposing
that he had by that time retired from the
management of the business, it not from
all connexion with it. The change, how-
ever, was probably quite as much due to
the father as the son, for the great Chip-
pendale was an absolute chameleon, taking
colour from all his surroundings, whether
bad or good.

If Robert Adam's chief idea had been to
influence the whole of the English furni-
ture he could not have hit on a better plan
than that he adopted. Had he started a
workshop, or, as in the case of his patent
stucco, employed a crowd of workmen of
his own, he would have met with consider-
able opposition from the trade. It would
not have affected either his position or his
income ; nor was he the man who cared
the snuff of a candle for personal enmity
(of which he had his full share), but, pro-
bably because his hands were sufficiently
full already, he left the manufacture of
furniture to the men whose business it was.
Not only were the pieces he designed put
in the hands of the existing cabinet-makers,
but in several notable instances — Claydon
House, for example — he appears to have
left them a free hand. That Chippendale
and Gillow worked for him or with him is
a matter of history, and that Lock also did
so is, in my opinion, capable of proof, while
Johnson and probably also several other
carvers of the time appear to have been
employed.

In one single instance, where Adam was
architect, Chippendale's bill for furniture

ran to about eighteen hundred pounds.
There was every reason, therefore, for
adopting Adam's style, and very little for
the expensive advertisement of books such
as the ' Director.' With the exception of
Adam's own publication nothing else of
any real importance appeared between 1 765
and 1 787. The old style, as we have already
seen, still existed, becoming gradually modi-
fied by the fresh influence ; but it is only
from the relics of the furniture actually
constructed that we can form any estimate
of its prevalence. As far as can be shown,
the Chippendales at least had very little to
do with keeping it alive, and ' the newest
taste' appears to have been the text of
the son as much as it had been of the
father.

The pamphlet mentioned is utterly un-
like anything we know as ' Chippendale,'
bearing throughout a strong resemblance
to Robert Adam, and a stronger still to
Pergolesi. Regarded merely as etchings the
designs are superior to Lock's, but wanting
in the restraint which Lock so admirably
copied from Robert Adam. The Italians
of the time seemed unable to leave well
alone, and few of the English copyists suc-
ceeded in grasping the dignity ot Adam's
translations. Among these the last Chip-
pendale cannot be ranked. His designs are
pleasing enough in general construction,
but he insists on carrying them too far.
Just as the flamboyance of Johnson attracted
his father, so he was affected by the too
intricate treatment of Pergolesi. Nor is
there anything which can be called new in
his ornament. The ram's head, the urn,
the fan, the medallion, and the honeysuckle
are extensively used, as also the griffin and
the sphinx. To the latter he gives a whole
plate, besides using it as a supporter. It is
not, of course, the Sphinx of Gizeh, but is
taken, like those of Robert Adam and other
designers up to Sheraton, from the Greek
imitation — the female Sphinx who pro-
pounded the famous conundrum, and killed

363

Minor English Furniture Makers

herself, in a fit of temper, when it was solved.
Though these are the only etchings which
have come to light, the executive skill they
display proves that they were not maiden
efforts. The designs have not been trans-
ferred to the ground, but drawn directly on
it with the needle, for the middle line he
used as a guide in getting both sides alike
shows on the prints. They are, for the
most part, pleasantly composed, with con-
siderable artistic feeling and knowledge of
draughtsmanship. The form, too, is fre-
quently cleverly suggested instead of being
made out in the hard and fast manner of
Lock and his contemporaries, and the
figures, particularly some of the more
sketchy among them, are effective and
dainty. There is, in fact, artistic power
but no attempt at originality. If one might
guess the branch of cabinet-making he
worked at personally, the likelihood would
seem to be that while his father's tool was
the chisel his was the brush.

It is quite possible that this small book
may have been published in emulation of
Pergolesi, who two years previously had
begun issuing in parts a volume of what
purport to be original plates. Pergolesi
was one of the crowd of foreign artists who
flocked to London during the fifties and
sixties when we were just beginning to
have a real national art of our own. The
reception given to many of these is now
almost unbelievable. Cipriani was con-
sidered the best historical painter, and
several of the others were original members
of the Royal Academy. That their influ-
ence on the English Renaissance was no
greater is little short of miraculous, for
they had, one and all, that soul-destroying
facility so captivating to the young worker.
As artists they barely merit serious con-
sideration, but as furniture and mural deco-
rators they were exactly in their right
places, and it was in these walks of art that
they were greatly engaged, Sir W.Chambers
and Robert Adam, who employed them,

364

being responsible for the arrival of most of
them in England.

Michel Angelo Pergolesi has been
credited by some of his admirers with a
dexterity in the use of the brush as great
as his ease in ornament, but, judging on the
evidence of his book, this appears to me to
be more than doubtful. This book is folio
size, the different parts dating from 1777
to shortly after the death of his patron,
Robert Adam. His dedication is almost as
grandiloquent as his wrongly-spelt name: —
'To the Memory of the late most High
and Puissant Prince, Hugh Percy, Duke ot
Northumberland, who was a Patron of the
Arts, and to Whose Virtues This work is
Dedicated by His most Grateful and humble
Servant Michel Angelo Pergolesi.'

The publication line engraved on his
plates is as curiously wrong in manner as
in fact : — ' Pergolesi Del 1 Scul 4 et Publish' d
according to act of Parliament the 1 of
May 1777.' That some of the etchings
— many of them, in fact — were executed
by himself is extremely likely, but a large
proportion are evidently by several different
men. Most of the plates contain ten or
more different designs, in placing which,
so as to make a pleasing whole, he displays
considerable skill and judgement.

In some of the later numbers there is a
central panel such as that illustrated, 2 drawn
by Cipriani and engraved by Bartolozzi ;
yet though their names are engraved on
each side of it in the usual manner, Per-
golesi makes no alteration in his publica-
tion line for the whole plate. There are
other similar plates in the earlier part of
the book which seem to have given rise to
the idea that he himself could treat a figure
panel in this manner ; but not only is the
majority of the figure-work which may be
ascribed to him immensely inferior to that
of his greater compatriots, but the unac-
knowledged plates in this style are evidently
also by them.

2 No. 2, Plate I, page 365.

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3MMODE IN THE STYLE OF ADAM. DECORATED BY ANGELICA KAITKM1N

;ece decorated by angelica kaukkman; forme

PLATE II. FURNITURE IN THE
COLLECTION OF SIR WALTER
GILEEY, BART.

Minor English Furniture Makers

Pergolesi must have been immensely
useful to Robert Adam as a draughtsman,
for it is evident that he had the whole
work of the school from which Adam took
his ornament at his finger ends, and where
he restrained his too exuberant curves
and flourishes, it is difficult to discriminate
between them, more particularly as a large
number of Adam's acknowledged designs
were probably by him. When, however,
we come to furniture there can be no such
confusion. The page illustrated 3 is a fair
sample both of Pergolesi's ornament and
his furniture, which latter, fortunately for
us, resembles nothing else of the period.

By far the most famous decorator of
English eighteenth-century furniture was
the lady artist we know as Angelica
Kauffman, whose real names were Marie
Anne Angelique Catherine. Some of her
biographers must have been, like the gen-
tleman in the Bab Ballads, ' shaky in their
dates,' as they seldom agree. Her first
marriage, for instance, is variously said to
have taken place in 1768 and 1769 ; her
departure from England in 1780 and 1781,
and her death in 1805 and 1807; nor do
they even agree as to the time and place
of her birth. As, however, none of these
occurrences were, like Robert Adam's
return from Italy, epoch-making in the
history of English furniture, absolute ac-
curacy is not required so far as present
purposes are concerned.

' The fair Angelica,' as her English
adorers loved to call her, began as an infant
prodigy. Her father was a poor Swiss
portrait painter, and at the age of nine her
earnings were already of considerable im-
portance to her parents, while at eleven
she was painting portraits of bishops, arch-
bishops, and dukes. At fifteen, when she
was the rage of Rome, she could speak
four languages perfectly, and was a finished
musician in addition to her other artistic
endowments. Even if we accept the earlier

8 No. 1, Plate I, page 365.

date given for her birth and add another
two years to the ages given, the facts will
still be sufficiently surprising.

She came to England in 1765, and at
once became the fashion, both in social
and artistic circles. She painted portraits
of the king and the prince of Wales, and
became the personal friend of Queen Char-
lotte. She had proposals of marriage by
the score, for she was amiable and beauti-
ful as well as clever, but she paid heed
to none of them, having fixed her affec-
tions (or possibly her ambition) on Rey-
nolds. Though that confirmed old bachelor
saw no reason for changing his condition,
he not only found her work, but actually
employed her, and the marble chimney-
piece illustrated 4 was one of two in his
house which were thus treated.

White marble chimney-pieces had only
just come into fashion, and were considered
very grand indeed. Goldsmith makes one
of his characters say, ' I have often seen a
good sideboard, or a marble chimney-piece,
though not actually put in the bill, inflame
the bill confoundedly.' Our ideas regard-
ing them have changed. The cold white
of marble is destructive to colour harmony,
and one of our greatest experts on colour
furnishing recommended giving them a
coat of paint. Reynolds evidently felt
something of this, but, not being quite so
revolutionary in his ideas, endeavoured to
make them suit their surroundings by hav-
ing them decorated by the fair Angelica.

It is probably a mistake to suppose that
Angelica Kauffman was included as an
original member of the Royal Academy
through Reynolds's influence ; it is, in fact,
much more likely that she had a good deal
to do with the actual grant of the Charter.
Whatever the Academy may or may not
have done to justify its existence, nothing
can be more certain than that it was
founded on pique and came into being
through back-stairs intrigue. Angelica

* Plate II, page 368.

3D9

Minor English Furniture Makers

had the Queen's ear, and her influence with
royalty could only have been second to
that of Sir William Chambers, the royal
drawing-master.

The re-introduction of painted decora-
tion into English furniture may be ac-
counted for in more ways than one, but it
is by no means improbable that the vogue
attained by this lady artist had much to do
with its general adoption. Robert Adam
has left a design for an organ, dated in the
early sixties, in which painted panels formed
part of the decoration ; but musical instru-
ments, to a very great extent, followed a
line of evolution of their own, and so far
as his drawings in the Soane Museum show,
he did not again employ this method till
1770. It was not for want of artists capa-
ble of executing the work that this means
was not resorted to, for Cipriani had come
to London three years before Adam re-
turned from Italy. Angelica certainly be-
longed to the rival artistic faction, but so
did his own assistant Zucchi, and, more-
over, he had probably met her in Rome as
well as London.

Be that as it may, it is at least certain
that it was not till some years after Ange-
lica Kauffman had attained to eminence
in England that painted furniture became
the fashion. The commode illustrated 5 is
an instance of how the chisel was rapidly
being forsaken for the brush.

Up to the time of her inclusion in the
Royal Academy Angelica's history had
been a series of unbroken successes ; after
that she made the fatal mistake which
ruined her life. The footman whom
she married under the impression that
he was of noble birth was pensioned off
on the condition of his leaving England ;
but Angelica felt the blow to her pride
so severely that, for the rest of her stay
in this country, she never again appeared
in society. Her work continued to be
much sought after, and she must have

« Plate II, page 368.
370

amassed a considerable fortune ; the ceiling
of the Council-room of the Royal Academy
was decorated by her, and Boydell published
nearly sixty plates from her paintings.

There is nothing distinctive in her style,
and much is attributed to her on which it
would be difficult to pass an opinion with-
out an amount of study which the subject
does not deserve. It is worthy of remark,
however, that when in 1780 (or 178 1) her
husband died and she married Zucchi,
she left for Rome never again to return
to England. Yet though this throws
considerable doubt on the later work at-
tributed to her, it does not absolutely
prove that such pieces are not authentic.

Poor Angelica's second marriage was
even more disastrous than the first, for
Zucchi seems to have taken to gambling
or speculation, and dissipated her fortune
as well as his own. Nor was her second
visit to Rome a success. Her former re-
ception in what was then the art capital
of the world was probably quite as much
due to her marvellous precocity as to her
art, and the woman of forty seems to have
come very near starvation where the child
made a large income. Under these cir-
cumstances it would have been strange if
such a good business woman had not used
her English connexion. In matters artis-
tic Rome was nearer London in the end of
the eighteenth century than it is now, and
the mere fact that an art object of any
kind came from the Eternal City gave it
value in the eyes of the ordinary English
collector. There is, therefore, every like-
lihood, especially towards the end of the
century when her circumstances had gone
from bad to worse, that she made use of
the only market where her work was still
in demand, and that many of the later
painted decorations on which doubt has re-
cently been thrown 6 are perfectly authentic.

6 Compare, e.g., a piano shown at the Bradford Exhibition last
year and illustrated in The Burlington Magazine for August
1904 (Vol. V, page 501), which must have been made nearly
twenty years after Angelica Kauffman's departure from England.

THE AUCTIONEER AS DEALER J&

JET another season is draw-
king to its close, and dealers,
'collectors, and all interested
in artistic matters are en-
gaged in contemplating the
.result of the work of the
past seven or eight months.
As most of the interest centres around the
dealer, let us consider his case first.

To begin with, it must be remembered
that he is a very conservative mortal, who
will continue to pursue a course that has
paid him well in the past, even when he
sees business declining from month to
month. The shrinkage has been ascribed
to bad trade, Stock Exchange depression,
the rage for motor-cars — any reason has
served as an excuse but the right one.
Last year a writer in this magazine
warned the dealers that the day ot
phenomenal prices for rubbish, in either
America or Europe, was fast drawing to a
close. A few took the advice in the spirit
in which it was given, and are now reaping
the benefit. But those who in the past
have made large sums from a lucky deal or
two are hard to convince of the foolishness
of a policy that has yielded them such a rich
harvest.

They have been pursuing the same course,
accumulating a number of objects —
most of them of considerable interest, for
there has been a decided improvement in
quality — at prices bordering on the ex-
travagant, and holding them in the hope of
inducing trans-Atlantic buyers to pay any-
thing they choose to ask for them. This
policy has accounted for the extraordinary
prices realized from time to time during
the past season for objects having some
pretension to quality and importance.
Again they have been unsuccessful. Nearly
all these objects remain in the hands of
the dealers who purchased them. Most
of them, it is true, are wealthy men ;
still they do not purchase for their own
amusement, and the result of this season's

operations — perhaps the worst they have
yet encountered — will leave them in no
encouraging mood.

The smaller men have had a very hard
time. Owing to the excessive prices that
good things have fetched, they have been
unable to buy what their old customers
require, and they have in consequence been
obliged to look on at the operations of their
richer friends.

Yet, side by side with this condition of
affairs, the sales have been exceedingly well
attended, and prices have ruled high even
for specimens that in past years would have
come under the category of rubbish. The
habit of attending sales has become a society
craze, and the wealthiest people in England
are to be found in the rooms for the two or
three days upon which the things are on
view. Naturally manv objects attract their
attention, and they give a commission or
two before they leave the sale-room. Now,
unfortunately, wealth and artistic percep-
tion do not necessarily go hand in hand,
and these people are seldom found to possess
either judgement or idea of value. The
result is that grotesquely extravagant prices
have frequently been obtained for rubbish.
The fact is all the harder for the dealer to
bear since he is conscious that he has far
finer things at home that he would often
be only too pleased to sell for one quarter
of the figure realized for similar specimens
in the auction room.

Then, again, when a person purchases
anything from a dealer he expects a
guarantee — unreasonable as it frequently
is on the face of it — and gets it. If
some indiscreet friend of the buyer, or some
rival of the seller, declares the object other
than what it was sold for, the dealer is
compelled to rescind the sale, or risk creat-
ing a situation which may materially
damage his reputation. When a thing is
purchased under the hammer the auctioneer
effectually safeguards himself against any
contingency by selling with all faults and

37i

The Auctioneer as Dealer

errors of description, and making no war-
rant whatsoever. Thus he has in a large
measure usurped the place of the dealer
whilst ridding himself of the latter's respon-
sibilities.

At the same time we frankly admit that
the auctioneer has not wittingly created
the situation. He sold works of art under
precisely the same conditions in past years
when few but dealers frequented his rooms.
In a great measure the change has been
brought about by the phenomenal puffing
of sales in the press. The attention of
the public has been attracted by sensa-
tional articles which more often than not
dwell entirely upon the sensational prices
likely to be obtained for certain objects,
and neglect utterly the artistic stand-
point.

The result is that art sales have been
invested with a speculative attraction that
can be likened only to the cotton or wheat
market when a boom is in progress. Now
and then some of these reporters overstep
the limits of their knowledge and endeavour
to work up the aesthetic side of their sub-
ject, with results that are frequently ludi-
crous. Many of our readers will remember
a long article which appeared at the time
of the Capel Cure sale, upon a compara-
tively worthless terra-cotta bust given to
Donatello, urging its purchase by the
nation ! It realized some fifty or sixty
guineas. Similar nonsense was written
about the so-called Botticelli at the Ash-
burton sale the other day.

The mischief wrought to the collector and
dealer by such writing is enormous, not
to mention the injury to the cause of art
itself by the setting up of wrong ideals and
by fostering a sordid spirit amongst the
general public.

That the really meritorious objects are
not always appreciated fully can well be
seen by examining the results of the Capel
Cure sale. The della Robbias, many of

the bronzes, the superb Riccio plaques —
finer have never been seen in London —
and the exquisite Italian shield, were sold
for comparatively insignificant sums.

In truth, the public have turned the auc-
tioneer into their dealer. In the long run
the results will be still more disastrous for
the purchasers than for the dealers. The
latter are generally men of long experience
and wide knowledge, which formerly were
placed at the disposal of their customers.
Hence if the latter possessed little or no
judgement they were protected in their
purchases by the dealer, provided he acted
in an honest manner.

Then again the purchaser is not always
treated fairly by the commission agent. An
agent is tempted to refrain from adverse
criticism when he sees a buyer keen upon
acquiring an object. He knows he will
meet with small opposition in buying a
poor thing, and a handsome fee will accrue
to himself. When a good example is sub-
mitted it is to the interest of the dealers
to make a private man, buying either in
person or through a commission agent, pay
its full value, to prevent an impression get-
ting abroad that things can be bought
more cheaply in the open market than
from them.

However, another season like that which
is coming to a close may effectually break
up the apparently invincible combina-
tion at present dominating the market in
works of art. Already a few courageous
spirits have demonstrated by their exhibi-
tions that a thing must not of necessity be
old in order to be good. They might go
one step further still and show that beau-
tiful and valuable objects can be secured
by people of quite moderate means.

In this way the older type of collector,
the man who was a connoisseur in the
truest sense of the term, may be tempted
back to the hobby he has so long had to
forsake.

372

ECCLESIASTICAL DRESS IN ART
J9* BY EGERTON BECK J5T*
ARTICLE II— COLOUR (PART II) 1

EFORE dealing with the dinal-legate, Peter de Foix, afterwards

archbishop of Aries, forbade the clergy of

the Aragonese dominions to make use of

Against this decree one of the canons

remaining colours, it may
not be amiss to give some
,more instances of the use
[of red by bishops, canons,
'and other churchmen. It
would be impossible to complete the list,
but as every ecclesiastic in red is at once
assumed to be a cardinal every additional
item of information is of value and should
tend to minimize errors.

To the list of bishops must be added
the archbishop of Milan, who, a friend on
the spot informs me, wears a red cappa
like the archbishop of Pisa. The arch-
bishop of Valencia, if an anonymous seven-
teenth-century writer 2 may be trusted, at
one time dressed as a cardinal ; of this, how-
ever, I have not found any confirmation, nor
do I know how he dresses at the present day.
It is perhaps worth mentioning that the
archbishop of Florence was, at the be-
ginning of the sixteenth century, granted
the privilege of using the ' purple ' for his
dress on certain great feasts. 3

It seems that the archbishop of Canter-
bury wore a red cassock. Warham (i 503-
1532) is so represented in his portraits at
Lambeth and in the Louvre ; so is Arundel
(1397—1398 and 1 399—1414) in his por-
trait at Lambeth, but in this case a ques-
tion arises as to the date of the painting.

Villanueva 4 quotes a document from the
archives of the chapter of Urgel, or La Seu
d'Urgel, in Catalonia, which shows that
the bishop of Urgel ( joint over-lord with
France of the republic of Andorra) and his
canons formerly, and apparently for a long
period, dressed in red. In 1429, the car-

1 For Article I see page 281, ante (July, 1905).

: The author of Voyage d'Espagne, Contenant cntrc plusieurs par-
ticularitcz de ce Royaume Trois Discours Politique sur les affaires du
Protcctcur d'Angleterre, la Reine de Suede ct du Due de Lorraine
(Cologne, 1666). See p. 103.

3 Moroni, Dizionario, xxv, 56.

* Viage literario a las Iglesias de Espana, ix, 1S6, 1S7. (Madrid,
1803-1852 ; the work is in 22 vols.)

red.

of Urgel, Augustin de Insula, protested at
the council of Tortosa, presided over by the
legate. In his protest the worthy canon
stated that the bishop and canons had for
more than three hundred years worn red,
and that the pope and the Roman church
had known of and tolerated the custom.
Villanueva adds that he does not know the
result of the protest ; at the time of his
visit, however, the canons dressed in violet.
Among the canons, not already men-
tioned, who wear red are those of Bisi-
gnano, in Calabria, who have a crimson
cappa and mozzetta; 5 those of the cathe-
drals in the provinces of Aragon, Catalonia,
and Valencia, who all use a dark red cappa,
trior ado ox mulberry colour. The canons of
Brixen, in Tyrol, have had a red collar
since 1748 ; 7 those of Valladolid, in Old
Castile, have not only a red collar but also
red stockings; 8 and those of Braga, in Por-
tugal, have red stockings and a red sash. 9
The canons of Sorrento have for ages past,
da tempo antichissimo, worn a ' purple ' moz-
zetta ; I0 and the same distinction was granted
to the chapter of the collegiate church of
Courgne, in Piedmont, in the early part of
the last century. 11 About the same time
the canons of the collegiate churches of
Monticelli and Castellarquato, in the then
duchy of Parma, were given a crimson silk
mozzetta ; 12 and those of Sora, in the Terra

5 Bullarii Romani Continuatio (edited by Barberi), xvii, 418.
The crimson mozzetta was worn before this date; the bull
confirmed the custom and gave the crimson cappa.

6 Villanueva, op. cit. i, 33, 34.

I This appears from the statutes of the chapter. The part
relating to the choir-dress of the canons was most kindly copied
and sent to me, with much further information, by the Rev.
Alfred Fink, of the Missionhaus at Brixen.

8 For this information I am indebted to the rector of the Scots'
college, Valladolid.

' Bull. Rom. Cont. xiii, 457.
10 Moroni, lxvii, 233.

II Bull. Rom. Cont. xix, 653.
12 Ibid, xiv, 572 and xv, 291.

H H

373

Ecclesiastical T)ress in *Art

di Lavoro, have the particular privilege of
wearing one of crimson velvet like that of
the pope. 13

In former times the canons of Milan
had red skullcaps and shoes in addition to
the red cappa which they still wear; 14 and
the dignitaries of Le Puy en Velay had not
given up their red choir dress when Vital
Bernard, himself a canon of that church,
wrote in the seventeenth century. 15 In the
Low Countries the wearing of red was not
unknown ; the canons of Tournay have
been mentioned already, but they were
not the only ones distinguished by the
use of that colour. In the exhibition at
Utrecht in 1894 there was a portrait (be-
longing, I believe, to the city orphanage)
of one Evert Zoudenbatch, who was canon
and treasurer of Utrecht, and provost of
Maestricht at the end of the fifteenth or
the beginning of the sixteenth century.
He is represented in cassock, surplice, and
almuce ; and the exhibition catalogue says
that the cassock is red. 16

Certain ecclesiastics, of whom no men-
tion has so far been made, wore red because
of their connexion with a military order.
Some of the knights of the French order of
Mount Carmel and St. Lazarus were clerics,
and their distinguishing dress was a crimson
velvet mozzetta worn over a rochet. 17 The
Italian order of Constantine also had eccle-
siastical knights, and such of them as were
of noble birth wore a crimson velvet bi-
retta. 18 The chief ecclesiastic of the Con-
stantine order and the ordinary of its
churches was the grand prior. In chapter
and on state occasions this personage wore
a violet cassock with crimson trimmings ;
a lace rochet; over the rochet a ' sopraveste'
of sky-blue ; a crimson sash ; on the

13 Moroni, lxvii, 202.

14 Magistretti, Li Vesti eeclesiastiche in Milano, p. 15 (2nd ed.
Milan, 1905).

15 V. Bernard, Li Miroir de Chanoines, p. 27 (Paris, 1630).

16 A reproduction of the portrait and the catalogue of the exhi-
bition are in the print room of the Eritish Museum.

17 Helyot, Histoirc des Ordres Eeligitux, i. 346 (Paris, 1714-
1719).

18 Radente, Bolla di Clemente XI ' Militantis Ecchsic,' e suo
commento. p. 145. (Naples, 1858.)

374

breast of the ' sopraveste' the cross o
the order in crimson velvet, silver and
gold ; a violet mantle; and a crimson velvet
biretta — a dress which suggests the glory
or the gaudiness of a bird of paradise or a
parrot. 19

Some religious also dressed in red. An
order of Slav monks found in Bohemia and
Poland had a habit of that colour ; 20 and
Boissard mentions another, the ' ordo
Johannitarum de Civitate ' as having a red
habit, 21 but I have so far failed^to find any
mention of this order elsewhere.

Before passing on something more must
be said too about rose. It was stated in
the last article that the hat-cord of proto-
notaries was of this colour. This is no
longer the case; the reigning pope has
but just recently changed it. In February
last he regulated the privileges of protono-
taries by a motu propria ; and now the cord
of their hat, the cord of their pectoral
cross, when they wear one, the tuft of their
biretta, and the tassels of the hat placed
over their arms have all to be ruby-coloured,
coloris rubini. 22 On the other hand, the
canons of Leghorn do not stand alone in
having a rose-coloured choir-dress. The
canons of the collegiate church of St. Eras-
mus at Veroli, in the Campagna, have a
rose silk cappa, the tippet of which is
faced with violet. 23

Violet. — Till the second half of the
sixteenth century there was no restriction
as to the use of violet. With French
clerics it was a favourite colour during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 24 and
its use by them continued till well within
the seventeenth ; Dom Claude de Vert,
prior of the Cluniac house of St. Peter at
Abbeville, says that people were still living

19 Radente, op. cit. 138.

:o Helyot, op. cit. i. 229 ss. and Boissard, Habitus variarum
orHs gentium, Pt. iii, plate 15. (Antwerp, 1581.)

51 Loc. cit.

™ Motu Proprio, Inter multiplied euras at pp. 9, 10, 12 (Rome
Vatican Press, 1905).

23 Moroni, xciv, 10 (volume dated 1859).

" Quicherat, Histoire du Costume en France (Paris, 1875).
p. 318.

when he wrote, at the beginning of the
eighteenth century, who remembered eccle-
siastics in that town wearing violet. 25 It
is also mentioned in English inventories. 26
In Venice it was used by parish priests
and by such other ecclesiastics as were
graduates of Padua ; 27 we find too that, in
1 59 1, the canons of St. Mark's, the ducal
chapel, were ordered by the doge, Pas-
qual Cicogna, to resume the violet choir-
dress which they had abandoned. 28 In
1592 violet was recognized by the patri-
arch, Laurence Priuli, as suitable for the
use of the dignified clergy and of parish
priests. 29 In the diocese of Bologna it
had to be expressly forbidden so late as
1736.3°

But already at the beginning of the six-
teenth century it is mentioned by Paris de
Grassis as being one of the two colours
suitable for a bishop's cappa ; 3I and in the
last year of that century it was definitely
ordered for bishops by the Caeremoniale
Episcoporum, published by direction of
Clement VIII. But as has been said already
its use by the ordinary clergy lingered on
for another century. However in 1736
Cardinal Lambertini was able to say, in
general terms, that then violet was proper
to bishops, the papal household, and some
seminarists to the exclusion of all other
ecclesiastics. He made no mention of
canons, many of whom wear violet, possibly
because, except in the case of a special
privilege, they may only use this colour for
their choir-dress, whilst the others also use
it for their ordinary dress.

The violet ordered by the Caeremoniale
did not extend to the head-dress. The skull-
cap of that colour was granted to bishops

25 Ceremonies de Vcglise (2nd ed.), ii, 357.

26 See, for example, that of Richard de Ravenser in The Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Archaeological Institute, 1848.

27 Gallicciolli, Memorie Venete, bk. ii, § 1678 (Venice, 1795).
» Ibid. § 1684. 2a Ibid. § 1683.

80 See the decree of Cardinal Lambertini, afterwards Bene-
dict XIV, then archbishop of Bologna ; it is printed in Barbier
de Montault, Li Costume et les Usages ccdisiastiques (Paris, 1898),

•• 37-

81 De Ceremoniis Cardinalium et Episcoporum, p. 45 (Rome, 1563);
it may be well to repeat that the book was written between the
years 1502 and 1510.

Ecclesiastical JDress in zArt

so late as 1867 by Pius IX ; 32 and the
biretta only by Leo XIII in 1888.33 But
skullcaps and birettas of violet had already
been used by some dignified ecclesiastics;
and the biretta even by the choir boys of
Angers. 3-t The patriarch of Aquileia wore
a violet biretta whenever he wore a violet
cappa ; 35 according to Sarnelli, quoted
by Bonanni, 30 the canons of Antwerp also
used one by ancient custom ; in 1748
Benedict XIV granted it to the cathedral
chapter of Brixen ; and in 1801 it was
granted by Pius VII to the canons of Csanad
in Hungary. 37 French bishops, too,adopted
it before its use became general. So with
the skullcap : it was worn by many arch-
bishops and by French and Flemish bishops
before the reign of Pius IX, 33 and before
the French revolution by the canons of
Antwerp. 30 Some ten years ago a violet
biretta of peculiar form was granted to the
Ruthenian chapters of Lemberg, Przemsyl,
and Stanislaw. 40 And the 'privilege' of
violet skullcap and biretta is being extended
to abbots. The abbot of Monte Cassino
has both. But it must be observed that,
though not a bishop, he has episcopal juris-
diction, and actually rules a diocese larger
than most in southern Italy. The present
abbot of Monte Vergine also has both as
a personal privilege ; 41 but he, too, has
episcopal jurisdiction. The abbot of Ein-
siedeln, though he also has episcopal juris-
diction, has neither skullcap nor biretta of
violet. The abbot of Solesmes has the
violet skullcap. 42

At the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury many, perhaps most, of the curial pre-
lates wore black; but in the course of that
century the use of violet was so freely

33 Barbier de Montault, op. cit. i. 224. 33 Ibid. p. 231.

84 Moleon, Voyages liturgiques en France, p. 83 (Paris, 1718).

35 Macri, Hicrolexicon, s. v. Cardinalis.

88 La Gerarchia Ecclesiastica, i, 154 (Rome, 1720). Bonanni
does not give the reference, but he is apparently quoting from
the Letter e Ealesiasiiche of Pompeo Sarnelli (Manfredonia, iG86,
and a second edition, Venice, 1716).

87 Bull. Rom. Conl. xi, 167.

88 Moroni, v, 174 (volume published in 1840) 8a Ibid.

40 Barbier de Montault, op. cit. i. 454.

41 So I am informed by his secretary, Dom Celestin Mercuro.

42 Barbier de Montault, op. cit. i. 226.

375

Ecclesiastical T)ress in *Art

granted to them that it came to be re-
garded as the proper colour for the dress
of the officials of the papal court — taking
this term to include not only those who
actually perform the duties appertaining
to the various offices, but also those whose
connexion with the court is but honorary.
And the lavish bestowal, in later times, of
these honorary distinctions makes violet
nowadays very common. 43 Writers on
ecclesiastical subjects are prone to see
svmbolism in everything, and it is not
without interest to find that one such
writer 44 says (and he seems to be writing
seriously) that there is good reason for the
use of violet by the curial officials because
that colour typifies ' modesty, moderation,
and humility.' The papal household, how-
ever, is not the only one clothed in violet ;
that of the patriarch of Lisbon enjoys the
same distinction. 45

The grand prior of the order of Constan-
tine was given permission by Clement XI
(1700— 1721) to wear a violet mozzetta in
the churches under his jurisdiction, in the
absence of the grand-master. When that
dignitary was present he might not wear
the mozzetta, but was allowed a violet
mantelletta. 46 The same pope granted the
use of the violet mozzetta to sixty chaplains
of the order of St. John of Jerusalem. As
a matter of fact they only availed them-
selves of the privilege in Malta : some of
them tried to do so in France, but the
bishops objected. 47

The canons of many churches have a
violet choir-dress : for example, those of
the patriarchal basilicas of Rome ; of the
cathedral of Milan, at certain seasons; 48 of

48 The Annuairc Pontifical Catholique for 1905 gives a list of
over 3,000 holders of honorary offices (all having the title Mon-
signore) — protonotaries, domestic prelates, chamberlains, chap-
lains — with the warning, however, that the numbers must not
be taken too strictly, as notices of death come to hand slowly.
In 1797, according to the Notisie dell' Anno for that year, there
were only 266 of these honorary distinctions.

44 Bonanni, op. cit. p. 472. 45 Moroni, xxxviii, 314.

46 Radente, op. cit. 138.

4 ? Helyot, iii, 114, 115.

48 Magistretti, op. cit. p. 20.

St. Ambrose at Milan ; 49 of Toledo 5 ° and
Seville in Spain ; those of Cologne and Mainz
in Germany ; of Le Puy and Besancon in
France ; of Trent and Brixen in Tyrol ;
of Mechlin and Liege in Belgium ; 51 of
Westminster and the other catholic cathe-
drals in England. The cappa of the canons
of Salamanca is partly black and partly
violet ; the mantle being of the former
colour, the tippet of violet velvet. 52 For-
merly the canons of Brioude and Laon, 53 the
dignitaries of Orleans, 54 and the canons-
regular of some houses, as those of St. Eloi
of Arras and of St. Aubert of Cambrai, 55
also wore violet. Some minor canons 55
also have it, and among them those of Pisa
and Lisbon. And in at least one house of
canons-regular, that of St. Jean des vignes
at Soissons, the lay brothers were dressed
in violet. 57 In Rome the consistorial advo-
cates, 58 though for the most part laymen
and married, wear, probably now only on
ceremonial occasions, the ecclesiastical dress
and that of violet.

It is advisable to note that there are two
kinds of violet — the Roman which inclines
to red, and the commoner one which tends
to blue; and that Paris deGrassis 59 expressed
the opinion that the violet cappa should
vary in shade, that it should be lighter or
darker according to the season or the feast.
There is a specimen of a light shade of the
Roman violet in the picture labelled Por-
trait of a Cardinal in the large Tuscan room
of the National Gallery.

(To be continued.)

49 Magistretti, op. cit. p. 16.

50 Barbier de Montault, op. cit. i, 391.

51 I am indebted to the Rev. Theodore Collme, a vicar of the
cathedral of Cologne, to Mgr. Schneider, a canon of Mainz, to
Canon Daniel of Le Puy, to the secretaries of the archbishops of
Besancon and Mechlin, to the Rev. Dr. Niglutsch of Trent, and to
Canon Le Roy, president of the seminary at Liege, for informa-
tion relating to the cathedral chapters of these cities.

63 For this information I have to thank the rector of the Irish
college at Salamanca. 53 CI. de Vert, loc. cit.

54 Moleon, op. cit. pp. 181, 182. 55 Helyot, ii, 76.

56 I use this term to denote the second rank of ecclesiastics in
a cathedral or collegiate church ; as a matter of fact they are
known by various names.

" Helyot, ii, 84. a Moroni, iii, 306.

59 Op. cit. p. 44.

376

NOTES ON PICTURES IN THE ROYAL COLLECTIONS

ARTICLE VIII— THE STORY OF SIMON MAGUS,

PART OF A PREDELLA PAINTING BY BENOZZO GOZZOLI 1

AND HERBERT HORNE J**

the confraternity was vulgarly called in
ancient times, because it was then the only
company which met in St. Mark's Church
at Florence.

The recovery of three of the predella
paintings would lead to the hope that the
remaining four may he discovered here-
after. The break-up and dispersal of altar-
pieces in Florence and central Italy at
about the date when this fragment was
acquired, must be a source of regret to all
lovers of pictures. The severance of the
Madonna by Gentile da Fabriano from
the main body of the Quaratesi altarpiece
at Florence is one instance, as already set
forth in The Burlington Magazine. The
predella by Gozzoli is another, and owing
to the information kindly placed at my
disposal by Mr. Home and Mr. Roger
Fry, I hope to be able to give a third illus-
tration in The Burlington Magazine in
the case of the Pistoja altarpiece by
Pesellino.

Lionel Cust.

This panel is not only of the same di-
mensions as two other panels by Benozzo,
but it recalls them so closely both in manner
and handling, that there can be little doubt
that all three pictures once formed portions
of the same predella. The panel now in the
King's collection at Buckingham Palace
was purchased by Prince Albert in 1846,
and measures 0,237 n - x °'33^ w -

Of the other two panels, one, in the col-
lection of the late M. Rodolphe Kann at
Paris, represents the miracle of San Zanobio
restoring to life the child of the noble lady
of Gaul in the Borgo degli Albizzi at
Florence, and measures 0,24 h. X 0,34 w. :
the other, which has recently been pur-
chased for the Brera at Milan, represents
the story of the boy, Napoleonc, being

377

BY LIONEL CUST, M.V.O.

MONG the early Italian
paintings purchased in
1846 by H.R.H. Prince
'Albert, from Mr. Warner
Ottley, was a small picture
^representing the story of
Simon Magus, painted on panel, measuring
9 J inches high by 14 inches wide, and
attributed to Benozzo Gozzoli. On ex-
amining this interesting little picture it
seemed evident that this ascription was
correct, and it has been further corrobo-
rated by such competent critics as Mr.
Claude Phillips and Mr. Roger Fry.

Subsequently the researches of Mr. Her-
bert P. Home, at Florence, have thrown
a clear light upon the history of this paint-
ing, and shown that The Story of Simon
Magus, which now hangs in the private
room of H.M. Queen Alexandra, at Buck-
ingham Palace, together with that repre-
senting the miracle of St. Zenobius in the
collection of the late M. Rodolphe Kann,
at Paris, and that representing the miracle
of St. Dominic, now in the Brera Gallery at
Milan, formed part of the predella of the
great altarpiece, painted for the Confra-
ternity of the Purification of the Virgin and
of St. Zenobius at Florence, by agreement
dated October 23, 1461. The principal
portion of this altarpiece, representing the
Madonna enthroned, with St. John the
Baptist, St. Zenobius and St. Jerome (kneel-
ing) on one side, and St. Peter, St. Do-
minic, and St. Francis (kneeling) on the
other, after many vicissitudes, which will
be found narrated by Mr. Home, was pur-
chased in 1855 for the National Gallery.
In the catalogue of that gallery it is de-
scribed as having been painted for the Com-
pagnia of San Marco, a name by which

1 For Articles I to VII see Vol. V, pp. 7, 349, 517; Vol. VI,
pp. 104, 204, 353, 470 (April, July, September, November and
December, 1904 ; February and March, 1905).

Part of a Predella Painting by Benozzo Gozzo/i

trampled to death by a white horse, and his
miraculous restoration to life by St. Domi-
nic. This latter panel measures 0,24 h.
X 0,36 w. Signor Corrado Ricci, in an
article which appeared in the Rivista
d'cArte? has suggested that the panels at
Paris and Milan originally formed part of
the ' predella ' of the altarpiece, which
Benozzo painted for the 'Compagnia della
Purificazione della Vergine ' at Florence :
and now this third panel, which has re-
cently come to light, goes far, as I hope
to show, to remove any doubt which
mav have attached to Sio-nor Ricci's con-
jectures.

The agreement by which Benozzo under-
took to paint this altarpiece, for the ora-
tory in which the Confraternity assembled,
' disopra alia chiesa di sancto Marco apresso
all ' orto di detta chiesa,' is dated Octo-
ber 23, 146 1. 3 By its terms, he was to paint
in the principal panel ' the figure of Our
Lady, with the throne, in the manner and
form of, and with ornaments similar to,
the picture of the High Altar of San
Marco,' which had been executed by Fra
Angelico : and on the right side of the
Virgin he was to depict the figures of
St. John the Baptist and St. Zenobius, with
St. Jerome on his knees ; and on the left
side St. Peter and St. Dominic, with St.
Francis also kneeling. Furthermore, the
document adds :

'the said Benozzo is to paint with his own hand,
at the foot, namely, in the predella of the said
altar, the stories of the said saints, each one over
against its proper saint.'

Giuseppe Richa, in his ' Notizie delle
chiese Florentine,' 4 relates how the Domi-
nicans of San Marco, having need of
the site of the original oratory of the
Confraternity of the Purification of the
Virgin and of St. Zenobius (as its full title
ran) in order to enlarge their monastery,

a Firenze, 1904, No. 1, pp. 1-12.

8 It has been thrice printed : the second time by L. Tanfani
Centofanti in his 'Notizie di Artisti tratte dai documenti
Pisani,' Pisa, 1890, pp. 83-86; and again by Signor Ricci, I.e.

• 1. c, Vol. V, pp. 331-4.

378

induced the members of the company to
accept in lieu of it a plot of land in the
Via San Gallo, on which a new oratory
was erected for them by the convent, and
to which they removed in 1506. Towards
the latter part of the seventeenth century
this new oratory was incorporated with
the buildings of the Ospizio del Melani, a
Hospital for Pilgrims, of which, by the
will, dated August 12, 1690, of its
founder, a musician named Domenico di
Santi Melani, the members of the Con-
fraternity, for the time being, became the
patrons and administrators. When Richa
published the fifth volume of his 'Notizie,'
in 1757, Benozzo's altarpiece was hang-
ing on the wall of the refectory of the
Ospizio. 5

On the suppression of the hospital
towards the end of the eighteenth century,
the altarpiece appears to have been broken
up, and the principal panel eventually
passed into the possession of the Rinuc-
cini family, from whose heirs it was pur-
chased in 1855 for the National Gallery,
where it bears the number 283. In this
picture, perhaps the finest of all Benozzo's
altarpieces on panel, we find the saints
depicted in accordance with the stipula-
tions of the document of 1461. We may,
therefore conclude that the predella was
also executed in accordance with the tenor
of that agreement : and that it contained,
in all probability, seven little panels ; six
of them being severally painted with the
stories of the six saints commemorated in
the principal picture, and the seventh, or
central one, with a Pieta or some story of
the Virgin.

But let us first inquire what may be the
subject of the panel at Buckingham Palace.
More than one critic has remarked that
the composition of the Story of St. Ze-
nobius, in the Kann collection at Paris,
closely resembles that of one of the four
predella panels in the Palazzo Alessandri,

5 1. c. vol. v. p. 335.

I I I i I INGHAM I'M \C]

M1R.V . E ; NIC. IN THE BR ERA GALLERY, MILAN.

l A PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDEK

TWO PANELS FROM THE PRE-

HI 1 1 A 01 I II I Al I AII'IM k

(NOW IN THE NATIONAL GAL-
LERY, NO. 2Sj) PAINTED BY
BONOZZO i,o/7iiII FOR Till:
CONFRAT1 KM I V I IF 'I III' PI II-
F1CATION AND ST. ZENOBIUS
AT FLORENCE

Part of a Predella Painting by Benozzo Gozzoli

in the Borgo degli Albizzi, at Florence.
These panels, which were formerly in the
church of San Pier Maggiore, were ascribed

by Vasari to ' Pesello ' :

' Et in san Piermaggiore nella cappella degl '
Alessandri, fece quattro storiette di figure piccole,
di san Piero, di san Paulo, di san Zanobi, quando
resuscita il figliolo della Yedoua : & di san
Benedetto.' 6

It was Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle,
I believe, who first pointed out that these
four panels were undoubtedly in the manner
of Benozzo. The story of St. Paul repre-
sents his conversion ; that of St. Benedict
represents the saint before Totila ; while
the remaining panel, which according to
Vasari represents some story of St. Peter,
contains a composition which bears the
same close resemblance, though in reverse,
to the panel at Buckingham Palace, as
the Story of St. Zenobius does to that
at Paris. It has been generally conjec-
tured that this Story of St. Peter represents
the death of Simon Magus ; but hitherto
no version of the legend has been pro-
duced which explains all the details of the
picture. Indeed, Herr von Weisbach has
gone so far as to contend, that the panel at
Florence represents the death of Ananias.
The story of Simon Magus, as related
in the Acts of the Apostles, leaves the
greater part of the figures and incidents,
which are represented in the panels at
London and Florence, unaccounted for.
The standing figure of the saint with the
short beard, on the right of the composi-
tion, is plainly intended for St. Peter ;
and that of the kneeling saint, with the
long beard, for St. Paul ; the character of
both their heads being in accordance with
the traditional portraits of the Apostles.
Yet why is St. Paul here represented ?
and who is the Roman consul or emperor
seated on the left? And what incident
does the wooden scaffold, and the figure of
a man borne aloft by devils, illustrate ?
The story of Simon Magus, as related by

6 Vasari : ed. 1568, vol. i, p. 405.

Petrus de Natalibus, bishop of Equilio, in

his ' Catalogus Sanctorum et gestorum

eorum'7 is one of the most delightful of

religious fairy tales, and I will not detract

from its naivety by attempting to turn the

child-like gravity of its mediaeval Latin into

modern English. So here is the original,

as it occurs in the course of the good

bishop's version of the legend of St. Peter :

' Quarto igitwr anno claudii petrus romam appli-
cuit : & ibidem 25 annis sedit usque ad annum

ultimum neronis cesaris Post hec

appoint dowi'nHS petro : & eidem prenunciauit :
quod simow mag«s & nero cesar contra ipszzm
cogitare/zt : sed eum hortatus est : ne dubi-
taret : qz<z'a semper sibi assisteret : & solatium
coapostoli pauli in crastinuw urbem intraturi
eidem co;zcederet. Dieqzze sequewti paulzzs romaw
ingressus petro adhesit : & secum pndicare cepit.
. . . Simow autem magus infantum a nerone
amabatzzr ; quod uite eius & salutis cS: totius urbis
custos putabatz/r.' [Here are set forth various
gests of St. Peter and Simon Magus.]

' Tunc simoK ad domuw marcelli discipuli petri
canem maximum alligauit : ut petnzzzz ad discipu-
lu;;z ex more uenientezzz laceraret. Post modicum
petrzzs uenit : & facto signo crucis canem exo-
luit. Canis autezzz o/zzmbus blandiens solum si-
monem persecutum in ipsum insiluit : & ut sibi
apostolus iusserat corpus quidem eius now lesit :
sed uestes totaliter lacerauit : populus autem &
pueri simul cum cane ilium tamquam hipum ex urbe
fugarunt. Cuius opprobii pudorem non ferens
simon per annum nusqwrtm comparuit. Post
annum uero ad urbem rediens : itenzzzz in neronis
gratiam receptzvs est. Qui & popolum urbis
cozzuocauit : & se grauiter a galileis offensuw
pez-hibuit : & idco diem statuit : quo mundum
deserens celum ascenderet : qzzz'a non dignabatz<r
in terris amplizzs habitare. Igitzzr die statuta
turrim excelsam sibi de lignis a nerone fabricata.vz
ascewdit : & coronatus lauro uolare cepit. Apos-
toli autem ad inuicem cozzdixerunt : ut paulws
oraret : & petrus impcraret. Cum autem nero
simonem deum assereret : & apostolos seduc-
tores diceret. Paulus aut<mz petro suaderet : ut
iam dommi iussa pcrficeret : eo quod xps illos ad
se uocaret. Petnzs surrexit : angelos sathane per
xpi nomen adiurauit : ut simonem amplius now
ferrent : sed ad terram corruere pezrnitterezzt. Et
continuo dimissus corruit : & fractis membris
omnibzzs expirauit. Nero autem se talem uirum
pcj-didisse doluit : & apostolos detewtos in mani-
bus paulini uiri clarissimi tradidit.'

Here we have the entire explanation of
Benozzo's composition. The seated figure

'• Ed. Vicentiae, 1493, lib. vi. cap. xxii.

381

Part of a Predella Painting by Benozzo Gozzoli

on the left represents Nero attended by his
guard : on the right are the Apostles with
the assembled Romans. In the back-
ground, in the centre, is the wooden
' tower ' (represented by Benozzo as a kind
of stage or scaffold), from which Simon
Magus has just taken his flight, borne
aloft by two ' angels of Satan.' St. Paul
is represented praying, in accordance with
the legend ; while St. Peter, who has risen
up, is in the act of abjuring the evil spirits
to desist from bearing the mage to heaven.
Lastly, in the foreground, lies the dead body
of Simon Magus, who has fallen face
downwards to the earth, 'with all his limbs
broken.' Having regard to all the circum-
stances here adduced, there can be little
doubt, I think, that the panel at Buckingham
Palace originally formed the story of St.
Peter in the ' predella ' of the altarpiece
which Benozzo painted for the Compagnia
di Santa Maria della Purificazione ; as
those at Paris and Milan severally formed
the stories of St. Zenobius and St. Dominic
in the same ' predella.' We may not unrea-
sonably hope that the four missing panels of
this 'predella' may yet be discovered in
somelittle-known gallery or country-house:
but the original frame of the altarpiece is,
no doubt, irretrievably lost. This frame,
as we learn from the last of the three
documents which will be found appended
to this article, was ' bella ' and ' tutta
messa d'oro,' and above the frame were
other ' adornamenti messi d'oro, begli.'
The first of these three documents is the
minute of the meeting of the Compagnia
Santa Maria della Purificazione, held on
August 30, 1 46 1, at which the members
of the Confraternity decided upon the ways
and means to be adopted for defraying
the charges of the altarpiece. The second
document is a ' recordo ' of the year 1501,
but copied apparently from one of an
earlier date, which is of value as showing
that the draft of the agreement (to which
I have already alluded) drawn up be-

382

tween Benozzo and the ' Operai ' of the
Confraternity was actually executed on
October 23, 1461. The last is an ex-
tract from an inventory of the goods of
the Confraternity compiled in the year
151 8. In conclusion, I wish to acknow-
ledge my indebtedness to my friend, Sir
Domenic Colnaghi, for having kindly
drawn my attention to these documents
in the course of our joint researches in
the Florentine archives.

Herbert P. Horne.

APPENDIX

Firenre : R. Archivio di Stato ; Corporazioni Religiose sop-
presse ; Compagnia di Santa Maria della Purificazione e di San
Zanobio: P. xxx, N° 14.

Libro di debitore e creditore e ricordanze ; dal 1 Marzo,
1455-6, al 23 Dicembre, 1466.
fol. i55tergo,

Richordo chome adj 30 daghosto 146J. il nostro padre
Ghuardiano & ghouernatore & suo chon-
p° della tauola sigljere insieme ispiratj dallo spirjto
santo deliberorono & mjssono inanzi
afratellj isopradettj patj & parerj : prima simjsse abotj
& uolanta che una tauola princjpiata prallaltare delnostro
luogho sidouessj dalle [sic, dare] mezo & fjne allalde del-
lonjpotente jddio & della sua glorjoxa madre Vergine
marja & per uentj q«attro botj uj ne tuttj unjtamente in-
sieme rjmasono sidouessj dare buono mezo & fine adetta
tauola & peraolere fare qwanto edetto sife dette proujgionj
chome apiesso sidira
Et prima che qiialunche danajo uenisse inostro luogho
ecetto queglj delljnfermj didue soldj il mese sidouesse
mettere inaumentatjone per fare della tauola chauato
nessussj [sic, ne fussi] il bissongnjo dellacera oljo ealtre
mjnute choxe pernostro luogho & quelle sifattono [sic,
facciono] chon piu masserjzie si puo
E anchora che qiialunche fusse dinostro numero che anti-
chame«te sipaghaua dentrata vno grosso che qaalunche
nonlo auessj paghato lopaghj & uadj adetto chonto didetta
tauola & anne atenere chonto ilghovernatore per questj
tempj saranno
E piu missono a partita due uolerj cioe che chi diceua difare
i a tassa dj soldj vno ilmese perdetta tauola & chj diceua
didue soldj ilmese missono apartitacheqiialuncherjinaneua
didettj due partite di piu faue nere sauessj apigliarerimasse
delle piu faue quello sipaghassj soldj vno ci'aschuno mese
& ujnsesi persoficjente numero & choxj side paghare &
mettere a detta massa di detta tauola ealtare

DOC II.

Firenze : R. Archivio di Stato ; Corporazioni Religiose sop-
presse; Compagnia di Santa Maria della Purificazione e di San
Zanobio : P. xxx, N° 7, Libro di Ricordanze ; ' chiamasj Libro
dello scrivano' : dal 6 Maggio, 1501, al 25 Marzo, 1525.

fol. ccxl tergo,

+ xfis M D J°
Richordo chome adj xxiij dotobre 1461 sidette adipingnere
latauola della nostra chonpangnia abenozo dalesso dipintore
nel popolo disanta maria del fiore delegne [sic, delege] tutto
elchorpo della chonpangnia 3 operaj sopra nostra chura
asolecitarella / edomenicho distefano ritagliatore alpres-
ente 8 ghouernatore / furano gi'ouannj dangnolo chalzai-
uolo franc dantonjo mercajo eser piero diser andre a
benccj furano fattj questj 3 operaj perilchorpo dinostra chon-
pangnia feci'ano elpatto per lire 300 obrigossj el guardiano
chonquestj 3 sopradettj operaj cioe giouannj franc" e ser
piero
8 [i.e. anno 1461. This is evidently a later copy, or abstract,

of some contemporary ' ricordo.']

Part of a Predella Painting by Benozzo Gozzoli

DOC. III.

Firenze: R. Archivio di Stato ; Corporazioni Religiose sop-
presse ; Compagnia di Santa Maria della Purificazione e di San
Zanobio : P. xxx, N° 8, Libro di Ricordanze ; ' chiamasj libro
dello schrivano' : dal 10 Maggio 1518, al 4 Dicembre 1475.

fol. 260 recto,

4- M D J [? error for 1518.]
Quiappie cholnome diddio sara nota pmnuentario dj tutte
lerobe Ecose mobile chealpresente sitruoua E pellauenire
ara lanostra sqwola ouero chompangnia E prim* .
+ Nella sagrestia djrieto alnostro oratorio . . .

Seghue nelloratorio djnazj adetta sagrestia
Vnaltare murata chonuna tauola dj pietra E indetta pietra
Eunchiusino Entrouj piu Reliqnie jnischanbio dj pietra
sagrata

fol. 260 tergo.

4- M D xviij
Vnatauola bella jnsuldetto altare dipintouj vna V^rgine
choruno banbino jnchollo Et sej altrj santj Ealtre djpinture
choruna bella chornicie tutta messa doro Esopra lachornicie
altrj adornamentj rnessj doro beglj.

DOC. IV.

[Since writing the foregoing, I have found another version of
the legend of St. Peter, written in Tuscan, by a contemporary
of Benozzo, from which I have transcribed the following account
of the flight and death of Simon Magus.]

Firenze: Biblioteca Nazionale, Conventi soppressi, Cod. B,
3, 7S3, ' Leggende di Santi,' etc. ; begun on September 2, 1452,
by Malpiglio Ciccioni da San Miniato del Tedesco, and finished
by him on the Feast of All Saints, 1463. From the Monastery
of Santo Spirito.

fol. 4 recto,

La passione disantto piero.
. . . Allora simone ando in chasa dimarccello suo diciepolo

ellegho vno grandissimo chane allusccio / etdisse Amarccello ora
vedero se p[iero] potera venire amjntte chome egli evsato
diuenire/et pocho istando edechoti venire santto p[ieroJ et
fattosi losegnio della santto croce/etsciolsseil chane dimostrando
atutti grande Mansuetudine / Eando [con] gra«de furia inversso
simone Mago etfecelo chadere In terra. Et preselo innella gola
et strangolaualo/esantto p[iero] co« gra[n]de voce grido et
chomando Alchane chenon glifacesse Morte / et ilchane No«
glifece male Alle charne / matute leuestimentte istracio ellasiollo
quasi chomeingniudo /Allora elpopolo masimame«tteefa[n]o
chello chacciarno chongra[n]de Romore fuori della cita/et
simone Mago pdlo vergognia istette vnano che egli non torno in
Roma / et Marccello vedendo qnello miracholo / Abandono simone
mago/et diuentto diciepolo di santto p[iero] et dopo vno anno
Ritorno simone Mago Aroma / et diuento gra[n]de Amicho
dinerone imperadore et Rauno tutto elpopolo etdisse iosono
duramentte ofeso dagalilei in questa citta laquale emantenuta et
ghouernata pdlamia verttu pdlaqnalchosa io gudicho che io >• 1
voglio piu Abitare in terra, Ancho Mene voglio Andare inccielo
eabandonare Roma / et detto questo, ordino qualdi Nedouesse
andare inccielo et fece fare Vna torre dilegniame / et sagliui suso
chonuna grilanda in chapo daloro, eperinchanttamentto didi-
monio, chomi[n]ccio Avolare pcllaria/et santto pauolodisse/
Asantto p[iero] Amesaparti[e]ne orare / eatte sapartiene
elchomandare / et nerone disse chostui euerace vmo Maui siete
Mentitori e inghanatori /et santto p[iero] disse Asantto pauolo,
leua altto il chapo et vedi / et pauolo leua[n]do alto ilchapo
euedendo volare ptlaria simone Mago /disse asantto piero perche
tidugi piu chompi qnello cheai chomi[n]ciato in peto che xpo
tichiama aparadiso / allora sa[n]tto piero disse / io visconguro
Angnioli disattano / et portate simone mago et chosi vichomando
dalla partte del nostro signiore gieso xpo chenoi nollo portiate
piusu mallasciatelo chadere / immantanentte glidimoni chello
portauano lolasorno chadere /et chadendo tutto sifracelloemori /
e nerone Nefu molto tristo et disse Asantto p[iero] easa[n]tto
pauolo voi a[u]ete Messo gra!~n]de sospetto etdolore Nelmio
chuore/ pdla qiialchosa/ Jo vccidero voj / Allora Nerone glicho-
misse A pauolino il quale glimise in pngione.

J5* MISCELLANEOUS NOTES Jar*

A PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM CAXTON

iMONG the many treasures of
the duke of Devonshire's
library at Chatsworth House,
which were brought back to
i the light under the librarian-
ship of the late S. Arthur
Strong, an engraving (see
,Plate I), prefixed to the well-
known copy of Caxton's ' Recuyell of the His-
tories of Troye,' deserves especial notice. It has
escaped the vigilant eyes of Ames, Dibdin, and
of all writers on the Devonshire Caxtons, includ-
ing Blades and Sir James Lacaita, who compiled
the catalogue of the Chatsworth Library. It was,
I believe, verbally noted by M. Wauters, but seems
to have received no further attention from any
student either of typography or of engraving.

The subject is the presentation of a volume to
a patroness, who is shown, by the initials C and M
joined by an interlacing cord, and by the motto
' Bien en aviengne 'beneath them, to be Margaret
of York, sister of Edward IV of England, who
was married in 1468 to Charles the Bold, duke of
Burgundy, as his third wife. The monogram and
device occur together in too many monuments of

ascertained origin to leave any doubt as to the
recipient intended. 1

We know on the authority of the prologue to
the book itself, that it was at the ' dredefull
comandement ' of this princess that the translation
into English of the ' Recuyell of Troye ' was
carried to completion, and that the manuscript of
the finished work was presented to, and well re-
warded, by her. William Caxton is at once the
writer of this prologue, the translator of the
romance, and the producer of the book, the first
work printed in the English language. If, there-
fore, the engraving belongs to the volume in which
it is now found, there is reason for regarding the
kneeling figure as a portrait of Caxton himself.

The use of engravings for the illustration of
printed books is rare in the fifteenth century, but
one example of it survives (unfortunately in a
single copy), which shows that this method of re-
placing the work of the illuminators could have
been known to Caxton. His typographical under-
takings undoubtedly brought him into contact
with Colard Mansion, the introducer of printing

1 See for examples the instances cited by M. L. Galesloot
in the ' Annales de la Societe pour l'etude de l'histoire de la
Flandre,' 1879; and by the Rev. ]. van den Gheyn in the
■ Annales de l'Acad. Roy. d'Arch<5o!ogie de Belgique,' 1904.

II 383

a// 'Portrait of JVilliam Caxton

into Bruges. The close similarity of the types
and workmanship of these two pioneers puts the
fact of their having been acquainted with each
other beyond question. One of Mansion's earliest
and most important works was a Boccaccio, ' De
la Ruyne des Nobles Hommes,' dated 1476. It
exists in various states, the diversity of which is
due to the attempt to decorate the book, at an
advanced stage of its manufacture, by means of
prints from engraved copperplates. The difficul-
ties encountered in this undertaking led, as in
similar experiments at other presses, to its aban-
donment. At least, the existence of only one
complete illustrated copy of this volume is now
recorded. It belongs to the marquess of Lothian,
and is preserved at Newbattle Abbey. Its nine
plates were issued in 1878 by Dr. David Laing in
somewhat unsatisfactory facsimile, and were de-
scribed in the same year by Mr. Sidney Colvin in
L'Art, vol. xiii. They form a group to which our
plate is allied, although I will not say that it must
have proceeded from the same hand. It is nearest
in character to an engraving of The Transfiguration
in the Print Room of the British Museum, attri-
buted by Dr. Max Lehrs 2 to the ' Master of the
illustrations to Boccaccio,' a name introduced
when these prints were first described by Sotz-
mann. 8

Caxton left Bruges in order to establish himself
in London in 1476, the year in which Mansion's
Boccaccio was printed, and about two years after
the appearance of his own ' Recuyell,' for which I
suggest that the Chatsworth engraving was pro-
duced. He could at that time easily have been
a